The Ultimate Training Facility

A blueprint for building gundog grounds

Imagine you were given the opportunity to develop the ultimate kennel and gundog training facility without the limits imposed by money. How would you set up the kennels, grounds and training areas? What would your wish list encompass?

    For me, housing would be the first consideration. A dog should be lodged where it can stay warm and dry as well as sheltered from the heat and cold. An effective design to meet these objectives is an indoor/outdoor setup. My kennel building would include an inside fenced run with a doghouse. The fence would be seven feet high and the run area 5' x 5'. The run would sit approximately 22 inches above the kennel floor on a platform made of an ABS flooring material with holes or spaces similar to a doormat. This platform would sit in and be supported by a stainless-steel bed frame with stainless-steel legs strong enough to allow a person to walk on the platform. The holes would allow wash water and urine to drain to a cement pad that would be pitched toward a trough along the outer wall of the building. The trough then would drain into a septic system. With multiple runs, each would be separated by a narrow corridor, allowing full access between them.

    An adjoining outside run would be accessible through a hinged door that would allow the dog to go in and out but prevent wind from entering. The doorway also would have a guillotine door that could be dropped to keep the dog outside or inside while cleaning. The guillotine door would be on a pulley system, allowing it to be lowered or raised from outside the gate inside the building.

    The outside run would be 8' x 5' and approximately 22 inches above the ground. The flooring would be of the same design as that used inside. The run would be supported by stainless-steel legs. Beneath the run would be a pitched cement pad that would allow waste material to be hosed into a second drainage trough emptying into the septic system.

    The ideal kennel building would allow the interior to be heated and cooled. Heat would prevent water buckets from freezing, and the cement pad and kennel flooring could be hosed off without the water freezing on the floor or at the mouth of the septic entry. An air-conditioned building would keep dogs cooler in hot temperatures and aid in diminishing humidity and bacterial growth.

    Skylights would be a great addition to the building’s interior, as the venting and air exchange they would provide would help reduce kennel cough and other airborne diseases from spreading.

    My top-shelf dog lodge would have an area for the daily washing of water buckets and food bowls. Food dishes should be washed immediately after the dogs eat. A commercial dishwasher would save time and ensure that food bowls were clean and bacteria free.

    Another room with a washtub, grooming/vet table and refrigerator would allow for keeping dogs clean. Nails, teeth, eyes and routine grooming would be attended to on the table. Medicine requiring cool storage would be kept in a refrigerator. Icing on the cake would be a washing machine and dryer, an abundance of electrical outlets, and wall and cupboard storage that allowed for easy visibility and access to supplies.

    Outside runs would have a roof over them to prevent rain and snow from drenching the dogs. The roof also would protect the dogs from the harsh rays of the summer sun.

    A dog housed in a comfortable environment will be happier, respond to training better and live longer. Keeping a dog dry and off of concrete will help prevent the development of arthritis and a multitude of health problems. A power washer would help tremendously in keeping runs clean and would cut down on cleaning time.

    When my dogs are not eating, sleeping or lounging around in their living quarters, they are being trained (or hunting). Properly set-up training grounds and facilities are of primary importance in developing a bird dog. The type of hunting a dog is being trained for and the type of country it will hunt must shape the ideal training grounds it learns on. The grounds required to develop a waterfowl dog are different from those preferred for a grouse dog, which are different from those for a wide-ranging Texas quail dog. Because I specialize in training pointing and retrieving dogs for upland hunting, my experience and knowledge are in that area.

    Training involves a combination of yardwork and fieldwork. Obedience work is completed in the yard before being implemented in the field. Thus, my blue-ribbon training facility would have both a yard-training area and a field-training area. If a dog is short-changed in either the yard or the field, it will never perform to its potential.

    My yard-training arena, whether indoors or out, would be set up to offer as few distractions as possible. Such an area would be close to the kennel building, not only for convenience but also to reduce the time spent transporting dogs back and forth. That said, it is preferable that the area be isolated so that other dogs in the kennel do not distract the dog being worked. I want the dog to focus on the learning exercises, not on other dogs, bird pens or anything else.

    The area would be enclosed, preventing the dog from bolting when off lead. It also would be big enough for me to position the barrels, boards, kennel crates and other equipment used in the structured drills involved in yard/obedience work. The area would have a roof to shade the trainer and the dog from sun, rain and snow. A lighted area would allow for evening work.

    Initial yard training—such as teaching “Kennel,” “Here” and “Sit” to retrievers and “Whoa” to pointing breeds—is implemented in the enclosed classroom. This area becomes identified in the dog’s mind as the place where it is schooled and where it needs to give the trainer its attention and best effort. The dog quickly learns that there is structure and accountability when it enters this area. It also should come to look forward to these sessions and feel that learning is fun.

    Once certain basics have been established in the yard, it is time for the dog to learn that the exercises and structure apply in other areas as well. When the dog is responding well in the initial enclosed area, it should graduate to a larger outdoor classroom. A fenced-in area roughly 60' x 60' would allow the dog freedom in exercises while keeping it contained. A dog is extremely place oriented and must have repetitions of the exercises taught in the enclosed classroom in a number of different places. It must learn that the commands apply everywhere, not just in the area where they first were taught. Again, the outdoor yard- training area should be far enough away from other dogs to minimize distractions.

    I would construct an additional fenced-in area roughly 90' x 90'. This area would not be used for yard training but rather as a playground for the dogs. In this area they would be off the hook and be able to roughhouse with other dogs. Puppies would be turned loose to socialize, learn dog talk, play and have a break from school. Even finished older dogs love running and chasing each other. Playtime is important for mental health, and the dogs will be happier and more enthusiastic students as a result.

    My next consideration would be bird fields. After all: no birds, no bird dog. In order to develop into a hunter that properly uses the wind, attacks bird coverts with a purpose and handles birds with proper manners, a dog must be exposed to birds and the type of cover in which they live.

    The waterfowl dog needs to be exposed to swimming, retrieving in heavy cover and marking downed birds in marshes, cattails and flooded timber. The upland dog needs to learn how to handle briers, alder patches and fields. All of this requires experience.

    Therefore I would want—and remember that this is a wish list—areas where I could get a dog into birds without having to spend hours driving. Exposing a dog to birds while it is a puppy and during the imprinting stage, from eight to 20 weeks, should not be a once-every-three-weeks proposition. Dogs need repetitions of the game, and this requires plenty of birds.

    It is important that a pup is successful and finds birds quickly when it is first exposed to the field. This means not relying on Mother Nature but rather using pen-raised quail to ensure that the pup is successful. I would want walk-in quail recall pens and only flight-conditioned birds. The recall pens would have to be large enough to allow the birds ample room so  they wouldn’t atrophy. Several recall pens placed around a training area of at least two acres—ideally five or 10 acres—would guarantee success for a genetically talented dog. The dimensions of the pens would vary with the number of birds required, with an 8' (h) x 8' (w) x 12' (l) pen being large enough to house 30 to 40 quail and also allowing us to walk inside.

    My ideal puppy field would have light cover. The grass would be six to eight inches high and not overly thick. The field would be brier free. Pups would not be intimidated by the cover and would be able to run easily. A portion of the field would be cut in rows, which would be perpendicular to the prevailing wind. Each row would be approximately 100 yards long and six feet wide, allowing pointing dogs to learn to run edges.

    Of course a dog that has run only in fields may have difficulty transitioning to the woods for grouse and woodcock. Therefore, a woodlot or wide hedgerow free of thick undergrowth would be valuable for teaching dogs to hunt in heavier cover. It is important that the dogs find birds in the fields, the edges and the woods if they are to become well rounded and able to hunt a variety of cover types and species.

    As young dogs become more confident, they will run bigger. This is OK at this stage. Patterning and hunting in range will come with more training. It is important, however, that roads not border the training fields. Traffic and dogs are not a good mix. I am fortunate: Our winter residence in South Carolina is a 3,200-acre wild-quail plantation with dedicated training areas; in the summer we train in Montana on a 100,000-acre ranch. Traffic is not a problem for the dogs.

    As dogs become bolder and better hunters, they need to hunt longer between bird contacts. There is no substitute for wild birds. Bird contacts are key to developing dogs that find and handle wild birds.

    There is a time during training when dogs are not allowed to run free, root out birds and chase. Instead, structured drills take place in the field. Pointing breeds are taught to hold point, be steady to flush & shot, back, and handle well. Flushing breeds are taught to pattern to the gun, sit to flush & shot, and sit to the whistle when tracking running birds. Pigeons are great training birds for flushers, retrievers and pointing dogs. That said, a homing-pigeon house capable of holding 50 pigeons would guarantee a ready source of training birds. A separate breeding area within the house would help perpetuate the population.

    Conditioning is a major part of our program. A physically fit dog will stay mentally fit, have more stamina, find more birds, train better, and live longer. In addition to allowing dogs to run free, we condition our dogs with a harness pull using ATVs. And because gravel is hard on dogs’ pads, we have a roading track set up in the pasture.

    Of course it is impossible to condition dogs in the July heat of South Carolina. That is why we are in Montana at that time of year. But South Carolina is a heap better than Montana in December. So as long as we are wishing, wish for your training oasis to be in an area that is snake free, has temperatures consistently 45 to 50 degrees, has low humidity, maintains favorable game- and dog-training laws, and has a ton of wild birds.

Editor’s Note: Horst designs kennels and sells flooring, fencing, doghouses and a variety of kennel needs. For more information, contact Horst Co., 800-221-4724; www.horstcompany.com. For another source of flooring material, contact Kennel Deck, 888-886-8801; www.kenneldeck.com.

George Hickox’s DVD “Training Pointing Dogs” covers developing a gundog from puppy to polished performer. It can be ordered by visiting www.georgehickox.com.

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