# How long do let them search?



## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

I was wondering how long do you guys let your dog search for their bumper or bird when they are on a run? If Jige is in the area of the fall my area is smaller than those I train with I want him in a 15ft circle or less. I let him hunt for a bit maybe a minute to a minute and a half before I ask for help It depends on the terrain too if I am training where I have lots of hills I let him search longer and give him a bigger area of the fall. 

I ws training with a guy that let his dog hunt for a good 3minutes or more. The dog wasnt anywhere near the bird and the guy wouldnt let me bring his dog closer to the area. 

My sister wants help for her dog right away...30sec and she is asking for a hey hey. 

So what do you guys consider a decent lenght of time to let them hunt?


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

Usually as long as they are actively hunting in the general area we let them hunt.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

As long as Tito is actively hunting, and not heading for Texas, I let him continue to hunt. 
I want him to learn to persevere without help. I also want him to learn to use the wind, and to quarter back to the AOF if he goes too far. He needs to learn, on his own, that he has made a mistake and to fix it himself. 
It's kind of fun watching him do it. Like yesterday, he over ran a mark by a good 50 yards. Then he pulled up, looked around, and you could just see him thinking "ooops, it can't have been this far". Then he quartered back, picked up the scent, and eventually came back with the bird.


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## AmbikaGR (Dec 31, 2007)

I too will let my girls hunt as long as it takes provided they are actively hunting up the bumper/bird. My one girl, Brooke, likes to go on a sight seeing tour at times. She will virtually step on the mark but then decide to continue on "hunting" to see what else she might find. I have made numerous trips out into the field to take her by the collar and bring her back to the mark. But this comes from "knowing" your dogs as I would not want to do this to a dog that is actively looking for the mark. The one time I want the gunner to help is if we are doing multiples and the hunt is bringing them into the area of switching. But that is just my opinion.


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## EvanG (Apr 26, 2008)

General V said:


> I was training with a guy that let his dog hunt for a good 3minutes or more. The dog wasn't anywhere near the bird and the guy wouldnt let me bring his dog closer to the area.


This is a separate issue. I agree with the others that we want our dogs to actively continue to hunt, as long as the dog is not abandoning the area of the fall and just running loose. But there is a technique to help dogs improve a hunt pattern that will not damage their confidence like excessive help from gunners will tend to. That often leads to dogs quitting on their hunts, and even popping on marks. You surely don't want that. 

The technique we use is one we got from Rex Carr, which is called "walking out marks". I'll write that up later.


General V said:


> My sister wants help for her dog right away...30sec and she is asking for a hey hey.


Yep. She's grooming a quitter! How can a dog maintain belief that he can do it himself when people are constantly telling him he can't?


General V said:


> So what do you guys consider a decent lenght of time to let them hunt?


There is no formula. I've let a dog hunt for a good 5 minutes on a hard fall in tough cover. And he succeeded! What do you think _that_ did for his confidence? He's a gundog that believes he can find anything that falls. But you must learn to read your dog to know if he's actually hunting the fall, or just running for recreation. That takes experience.

As a general rule; don't get impatient.

EvanG


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

I asked this because I have been told you want them to be successful everytime they go out and you dont want them to just be running around and stumble upon the mark so if you help them you are teaching them to look more closely when the mark falls....at least that is what I got out of that talk. 

I have noticed a few times where Jige is more interested in the scents in the field and will happily run over the mark to check something out and then come back to it and finish his run. He did this alot in the field that was heavily deer hunted as there was lots of blood spots around. I realize this was probably not an ideal place to train but it is what I have available.

I think I am doing okay then. I will let him hunt longer and maybe increase my area of the fall abit. I like him to have a tight area that he hunts but I have noticed those I train with have a HUGE area that I wouldnt even consider it in the area more like in the same county....lol


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

We let the AOF get quite large, however they will usual check down several times. Really the only time we stop them is if they are giving up and coming in or starting to switch. I was not allowed to throw many doubles (unless they were very short easy ones and still not many) until a had at least rudimentary handling skills in place to stop a switch. 
I'm told that you need them to learn how to work it out because not even the best marking dog is not going to step on every mark. Also that it gives the dog confidence when they work it out.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

So long as the dog is staying in the AOF (and you have to be realistic with the size of the AOF) let them hunt.


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