Establishing a Solid Quartering Pattern - An Interview with David Lauber

	Having gunners shake birds is a surefire way to keep a young dog interested in pattern work. Photo by: Author

Last issue we spent time talking with David Lauber, regarding the introduction of young dogs to gunfire during fieldwork. This issue we will continue our talk, but step back a bit and talk about establishing a strong quartering pattern before shooting over the dog and eventually steadying a young spaniel.

David Lauber:
"As I seem to mention before we start each issue the answers presented during this interview are only one way to solve a problem. It may not work for every dog. When we train dogs we often have to try many different approaches before we find an approach that works with a particular dog. This is where the advice and experience of reputable professional trainers comes into play. By constantly refining their spaniel training program, professional trainers can often avoid the inevitable pitfalls novice trainers run into when training a dog. A well thought out training program, built on experience, can often be the difference that makes or breaks a field trial champion and even a gun dog as we move into the advanced levels of spaniel training. In fact, I can think of no other point in the training process that the novice has so many opportunities to ruin a good dog than during the process of steadying a dog to wing and shot. With that said, let’s move on."

Gundogs Online:
"David, I know this issue we want to talk about steadying a dog to wing and shot. But I thought it might be useful to step back a moment and talk about developing a young dog’s pattern. I have received lots of emails and phone calls asking that we address this issue and before we start talking about steadying a dog, I figured now would be a good time to talk about establishing a strong pattern in a young spaniel."


David Lauber:
"Well, Geoff, we did kind of get ahead of ourselves a little bit in the last issue. In fact, we should always make sure the dog has a solid pattern established before we begin shooting over the dog. The reason for this is simple. Pattern work is one of the building blocks we lay for the more advanced level fieldwork, like steadying to wing and shot. So we should step back a moment and talk about pattern work then we can address the steadying process and if time does not permit, we can save it for next month."


"One way to establish a pattern in young spaniels is to employ a method called ’shaking’. This method requires three people, the handler and two gunners. Each gunner takes a live, unbanded pigeon tied to a light string that they can hold onto. The handler starts out by having the dog ’hup’ between the two guns while one of the gunners starts hooting and hollering and letting the bird flop around until you get the dog’s attention. The dog should naturally run over to the gunner who is shaking the bird. As he does that, the gunner should take the pigeon and tuck it under his arm, hidden from the puppy. At this time, the other wing-gunner should begin to start hooting and hollering to draw the puppy back across the field, in front of the handler."

"After you have the dog responding to the hooting and hollering and is moving well between the guns, you’ll want to rolled-in a clip-wing bird in front of the guns. You do this by following the same procedure as I outlined above, expect this time just before tucking the pigeon under your arm, while the puppy is coming across you’ll want to throw the pigeon 5-10 yards out in front of the gun. Starting out, it’s fine if the young dog sees you roll the bird in. At this point he has not figured out how to use his nose and by seeing the bird rolled in he will complete the cast."

"By rolling a bird in for the young dog we are rewarding him for quartering between the guns. If all you do is shake the birds and play "keep-away", he’ll eventually wise-up and say, "If I go over there I am not going to get a bird, so why bother." This is where it becomes important to learn to read your dog and know when to roll-in birds to keep him interested and keep his attitude high. Remember, we are talking about young dogs, 4-6 months old, who are not going to take a lot of running. So you might do a series where they are retrieving 2-3 birds back to you and put them up. A point I should make here is that we should not start this pattern work until the puppy is retrieving reliably in the yard. If you do have a puppy that wants to play around with the bird, you’ll want to put a long check cord on him and gently guide him back to you (as we discussed last issue), so he doesn’t develop a habit of playing with birds in the field. "


Gundogs Online:
"If the puppy starts to hang up at one of the guns, how would you correct this problem?"


David Lauber:
"Many times the puppy will hang up at the guns if he sees the bird in the gunner’s hand. That is why we have the gunners tie the pigeon to the string and quickly tuck it under their arm as the puppy approaches. The other thing we try to do is start rolling birds in on the ground sooner so the young spaniel will start looking for the birds on the ground, rather than in the gunner’s hand. It’s best to structure your training so you never get to the point where you have a young dog running around the gunners’ feet and jumping up on them."

	At times the handler may need to quarter with the young dog in order to encourage him to complete his cast. Photo by: Author

Gundogs Online:
"At what point do we stop shaking birds and hooting and hollering in the field to get the spaniel to work between the guns?"


David Lauber:
"It depends on the dog. If he seems to quarter naturally between the guns you may be able to stop shaking and stop the hooting and hollering altogether. But before you start phasing out the shaking and hooting and hollering make sure he is getting birds on the ground."

"As the young dog is going to one of the guns, have the other gun roll a pigeon into the grass in front of him, without the pup seeing gun do so. Then as the dog turns from the first gun and heads back to the gun that just rolled in the bird he is going to have to use his nose to find the bird. This makes it a bit more interesting to the dog and begins to teach the dog to use his nose to find the birds on the ground. That is the first step in the process. Then you can stop shaking the birds and eventually stop making noise in the field in order to get the dog to quarter naturally."

"There is no timeline for this process. It all depends on the dog’s level of maturity, intelligence, and desire. We have had dogs, in fact a whole litter, that pick this whole process up in three days and we were shooting over them by the end of the third day. But don’t expect that type of results with your own dog. Roy French, owner of Denalisunflo’s Kennels, who is 103 years old, said that was the first time he had ever seen an entire litter take to quartering so quickly. And he has been into dogs for many years."


"This method works. You’re going to tell within a few spaniel training session how interested the spaniel is in hitting the birds. Sometimes it may take a little more encouragement to get the dogs to run between the guns. I have had some dogs that I had to actually quarter back and forth with, in order to get them to work between the guns. What a workout! "


Gundogs Online:
"Is there anything that you do to encourage the spaniel to work in front of you and not back-cast?"


David Lauber:
"When we begin this process we usually want to work into a headwind. However, some puppies may scale with the wind and allow the wind to push them backwards and eventually they will start back-casting, or running behind the gunner. This is where it is important to start rolling-in birds in front of the guns. If you cannot get the young dog to quarter in front of the guns, change wind directions and run downwind. They will always run in front of the guns when working a downwind pattern. Do this for a while so he gets in the habit of working in front of the guns and finding birds in front of the gun. Eventually he will know that the birds are in front of the guns and quarter in front of the guns into a headwind. I would not worry about back-casting too much unless I had a 10-month-old dog continuing to back-cast. Then you would have to carefully evaluate what you were doing and determine if it’s your technique or the dog."

Gundogs Online:
"How quickly would you move down the field when working a young spaniel compared to an older, seasoned spaniel?"


David Lauber:
"The spaniel is going to dictate how fast we move down the field. We always want to be moving down the field. If you stay stationary or don’t move quick enough your bound to have a puppy that is just running back and forth between the guns and eventually will start back-casting on you. Some dogs will not want to cover the same ground twice so we will have to move down the field a little quicker with them, almost at the same pace you would with an older dog. However, let the dog dictate the pace. Initially, most dogs won’t mind covering the same ground twice so it’s not that important to move up the field, like you would with an older dog. Read your dog and he will tell you how quickly you need to move up the field. If he is looking around or pondering, he is probably telling you he is getting bored and wants to move up the field and find game."


Gundogs Online:
"Now that we have the technique for establishing a pattern, what would you do to encourage a young dog to cover the ground completely and not leave any holes in the course?"


David Lauber:
"When working with young dogs you may find that you do more movement side-to-side than forward. Don’t get concerned with this; eventually you will not have to go out toward the guns to get your young dog to complete a cast. Its important to do whatever it takes to get them to cover the ground completely. As the dog gets older and quartering more reliably you will want to the gunners to roll birds into the area where he failed to cover. If you can time this so that as the dog comes up short on a cast the gunner rolls a bird in and you stop the older dog and recast him into the area, the dog will eventually start to work the course without leaving any holes. Always be aware of wind direction and realize that a dog will tend to work shorter on the upwind side and run longer on the downwind side. Be patient and have fun with it."


Next Issue-
We will be talk to David Lauber regarding the proper way to steady a spaniel. If you have specific questions you would like David to address, please email us at Gundogs Online.