Ranging too far

I Was just out pheasant hunting with my lab for the first time this season. He was constantly out of gun range for the first half hour and about 25%-50% of the time the rest of the time. I almost took him back to the car in order to hunt with my friends dog. I am thinking of hunting him on a 50 foot cord for a few days. Will this work? Any other ideas? Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin, This dog need to learn how to quarter properly.

Set up your field so that you have medium cover. Have two friends assist with this it, will help a lot. Have each friend hold a clip winged pigeon. Start off by casting the dog to a assistant give it a over command, I would do this with a whistle. Then have the assistant shake the bird and make noise. The dog will run over to take a sniff and get excited. Blow two pips on the whistle then the other assistant makes noise and shakes the bird. This will get the dog to quartering down field.

At this point plant a couple of clip-winged birds in the field. Tease the dog into a quartering pattern and let the dog smell a clip and catch it, then move to a flyer. Plant all your birds with the wind at your back. This will cause the dog to run past the bird then have to come back toward the people to find the bird.

The check cord might work it might not. I will tell you a plan of attack and I hope it helps. First, do not keep running this dog with another dog. I think he is trying to compete with the other dog and to hell with you. Next stop hunting this dog and only train until he is ready. Horse trainers use a round corral for a reason.... CONTROL!

Don't be afraid to put the dog up. If he is running too big and you start in on him give him a warning then shake him up and put him away. I really think that if you teach him to quarter then he will be running 20 yards to the right and then 20 yards to the left instead of 40 yards straight ahead. Ron Klimes

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