How we’re preparing Hail for duck, pheasant and chukar this year
Having had a gundog dog for almost seven years now, you’d think I’d have a few seasons of hunting experience under my belt. But, the truth is, Hail and I have only been hunting together properly a handful of times.
When she was younger, and I was less experienced in the ways of gundogs, I’d let her ‘hunt’ almost every time we went to the forest for a walk… which back then, was at least a few times a week. She’d run round like a blue-arsed fly, following every smell and chasing anything that moved. She’d often come back to me with ‘gifts’ of her spoils… or gifts that her much older and wiser hunting companion had managed to snag from deep within the brambles… cheers, Dice!
What I didn’t realise was, all this ‘free-hunting’ was actually creating a massive hidden problem for me when I did finally want to start using her on birds. So, while I’d love to count all of the ‘impromptu hunting’ sessions she did as an unruly teenager, I’m now reluctant to call that proper hunting at all.
Prior Experience…
So, what have we done? Well, we did go on one duck shoot when she was younger, but unfortunately the duck gods were not on our side. Hail’s breeder took us out with Hail’s mum, Freya, one very cold and frosty morning, but the ducks were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Hail and her mum found a couple of possums… they did their bit for conservation, and we called it a day.
Then in 2024, I was invited by my friend, Adam, to go on our first ever pheasant shoot. Unfortunately, that hidden problem I spoke of earlier reared it’s ugly head in the most embarrassing way possible. Like any naive newbie, I expected that Hail would just know what to do and we’d be up to our elbows in birds that she’d found in no time. What actually happened was she spent the entire first drive running around like a lunatic. Within seconds she’d be more than 50 meters ahead, barking and chasing every small fluffy critter in the riverbed, while completely ignoring the scent or presence of birds in the process. I was so embarrassed and exasperated from calling her back, and trying to keep her in gun range, that she spent the next drive in the back of the truck… I was mortified!
The shame I felt after that experience motivated me to spend the next 12 months working on our recall in highly distracting environments. Training a hunting dog is not like training anything else. You’re dealing with such an intense level of prey-drive, genetics and unpredictable environmental stimuli that this takes time to develop. I owe a lot of our success here to the e-collar conditioning we did following dog training Jesus, Pat Nolan’s Collar Conditioning Program.
Last season, Adam decided he was a sucker for punishment and invited us back for another crack at pheasant hunting. This time we were joined by some other friends from our gundog training group as well. Despite having put in the work, I was still a little nervous about how it was going to go. I needn’t have worried.
Watching Hail work, actually brought a tear to my eye. She was so controlled and methodical in her hunt pattern. She pushed into cover, she worked the field, she trusted her nose, she was steady to shot, and she pointed! I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
One of the shooters was particularly taken with her, which was such a compliment in my mind. She put up several birds throughout the course of the morning. The day was a blast! For me, having a dog that experienced hunters wanted to shoot over is the best a novice handler could have dreamt of.
So, this year, Josh and I have a new goal for the 2026 hunting season: Hunt as much as possible!
We intend to hunt for several different species over the season to see if we can bag ourselves some beautiful birds and put Weimaraner versatility to the test. Our first hunt will be at opening weekend as we have just secured ourselves a balloted maimai thanks to New Zealand Fish & Game. We also hope to get a spot on a goose shoot and a chukar shoot in the Molesworth Station later in the season. It’ll be a great opportunity to get the trailer out again and get amongst the beautiful country that we call home.
How are we going to prepare?
With all this hunting on the cards, there are a few things we need to do to get ourselves ready for some big weekends away. I know it might seem a little crazy to be prepping for this almost three months ahead of time, but you really can’t argue with the old adage, “proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance”. Hunting is hard enough as it is without adding human error and wishful thinking to the list.
Some of the prep we’re doing is getting gear. That’s a one and done type exercise, and could probably be left until a few weeks beforehand. But, some of the prep we need to do is going to take time to take effect. This is why we’re acting on it now, so we don’t get caught short on opening day.
Fitness
The first thing that we need to work on is fitness. We have a couple of months to get into shape… and I’m not just talking about the dog.
While duck shooting from a maimai is a relatively sedentary sport, upland shooting is the total opposite. Hunting any upland bird species involves walking long distances, usually through tall grass and cover. In the case of chukar, these birds can be found up to 2000 meters above sea level! That’s long distances at altitude; no mean feat!
All this walking, whether it’s through tall grass on the flat, or up in the hills, is a killer on the legs and glutes. To help us to prepare for it, we’ll be training on our local Port Hills to get everyone up to the level of fitness required for a good days hunting.
I’m going to include feet fitness here, too. Through no fault of her own, and likely a side effect of her illness and medications, Hail has particularly delicate feet. While she will likely wear booties for most of our hunting adventures (more on this below), we will also try to toughen her feet up through training on different surfaces.
I have toyed with the idea of using products to harden her paw pads, but given that she’s basically a dog pretzel, I didn’t want to run the risk of her ingesting any products that could upset the precious balance of her internal ecosystem. Instead we’re opting for the ‘organic’ method of exposing her to different, abrasive surfaces gradually so that her feet will form calluses over time.
Equipment
As for equipment, we’re pretty well sorted on this front from our limited previous experiences. There aren’t a lot of items that the dog needs to hunt, but there are a few safety items that I wouldn’t be comfortable hunting without.
Vests
Weimaraners are the invisible dog! They are the colour of every natural surface you can think of. Dead grass, pine needles, sand, scree, stone, mud… the list goes on. If it’s a shade of brown, chances are the dog will turn invisible once they’re out to gun range. This is why Hail always wears a hi-vis hunting vest when we’re doing any sort of upland work.
I bought her the Non-Stop Dogwear high visibility dog vest a few years back, and it’s been an awesome bit of kit. I also purchased additional high visibility vests for my other dogs from The Real Dog Equipment Company in Naseby which are exceptional too. Bonus that they’re New Zealand made!
The other item of protection that’s new this year is the Avery Sporting Dog Boaters Dog Parka. As Hail’s coat is a thin, single coat, I know that she’s going to feel the cold while we’re out in the maimai. I’m hoping that this neoprene vest will help to keep her a bit warmer while we’re waiting for the birds to come in, offer her a bit more protection from sticks or debris in the water, and has some nifty handles to help pull her back up once she’s back from her retrieves. I’ll make sure to do a full review of this once we’ve used it properly to let you all know whether we think it’s worth the money or not.
Booties
As I’ve mentioned, Hail’s delicate feet do pose problems for big days covering rough terrain. To prevent her cracking or shedding her paw pads we will be using rubber booties for much of her upland hunting work. We have tried ‘real’ dog booties from various outfitters in the past, but without much success. They’re often quite expensive, and have a habit of going missing when Hail’s out adventuring… at the rate she was losing them, you’d think she was sponsored!
An experienced hunter friend of ours showed me how to make booties out of bike inner tubes, and that’s what we’re going to run with this year. They aren’t the most beautiful, but they are really durable, and that’s what counts.
Collars & Bells
Last season, I ran Hail with her e-collar on, but not her tracking collar. Part of my reasoning was that I felt like she’d be too layered up with gadgets while pushing through cover to wear both. I also didn’t think she’d be getting far enough ahead of me to warrant needing the tracker function, which can be a little slow to update at close range anyway.
Sure, she wasn’t that far away from me, but once she was in cover, I couldn’t tell where she was, which direction she was travelling in, or whether she was onto a bird. Again, my sage hunter friend to the rescue with another great tip: use a bell!
This year I’m going to trial it and see how it goes. I’m hoping that the bell will give me enough information about her distance, speed and direction that I can stay off my whistles a little more and let her do her job with fewer interruptions.
Whistles
The last bit of kit that I wouldn’t hunt without are my whistles.
Whistles are the best way for me to quickly communicate with Hail what I want her to do, without hollering like a banshee all morning and making a complete twat of myself.
I have two types of whistle, which I use on different occasions. I have my trusty little Acme 211.5 Alpha and my monster Perfect mARC Navigator which houses an Acme Tornado whistle.
I tend to use the 211.5 for closer upland work when Hail is either within gun range or the environmental conditions are relatively still. It’s easy on my ears, and the ears of those around or in front of me, so I’d say it’s my more socially acceptable whistle on a group hunt.
The Navigator is a different story. This whistle is LOUD! Like, don’t stand in front of me when I blow it unless you have ear protection on, loud. This is not the whistle I would use when upland hunting, especially in a group, because I don’t fancy the thought of annoying anyone who’s holding a shotgun. The Navigator is perfect for communicating at long distances or when the conditions are windy. This will be my whistle of choice when directing Hail from the maimai in a howling Southerly.
Training
Obviously, training is a huge part of our preparation building up to the shooting season. I won’t go into all the details of everything we’re working on, but I will point out a few things that are probably understated or underappreciated.
Gunfire
Hail is used to gunfire, having hunted before and through her time as a trialling dog. However, standing at the peg with a blank ’22 shot fired from a few meters away is quite different to hearing the sound of a 12 gauge going off from right beside you.
This is why, Josh and I will spend some time, refamiliarising Hail to the specific sound of the shotguns before sitting her in the maimai on opening weekend. I want to make sure that the sound of the shot, at the much closer distance, isn’t going to distract her from her job of watching the birds come in and seeing where they fall… no pressure, Josh and Hamish, but we’re counting on you here!
Bird Handling
Likewise, Hail’s trialling experience has prepared her with the skills she needs to handle and deliver birds, but, it’s important to remember that not all birds are created equal.
Usually in a trial, we would retrieve pigeons. They’re a pest species so they’re relatively plentiful, they’re small and easier to transport, and they make sense when volume is needed. However, carrying ducks is a little different to carrying pigeons, especially large ducks like paradise ducks. Ducks are heavier, their body is wider, and their wings are a different shape and have a slightly different positioning on the body. This makes them more difficult to carry, especially for dogs that haven’t got a wide gaping mouth.
This is why I have a few frozen ducks in the freezer from last year for us to practice with over the next few weeks. Picking up birds correctly makes a big difference to the difficulty of the retrieve.
Just this morning, during a group training session, Hail retrieved three paradise ducks (also called parries). She had real trouble with the first one as she picked it up with her mouth going under the wing. This meant that on her return home, the wing flicked up over her eyes so we was essentially played a game of ‘Marco Polo’ to get her to find her way back to me. On the next bird she picked it up slightly better with only part of the wing getting in the way. By the third parrie, she had it sorted and came in without incident.
The biggest species I want to work her on will be Canada geese, so I need to get my hands on a few and practice that too before we head to the Molesworth. Again, preparing my dog for the job on the day ahead of time will prevent that embarrassing moment when they don’t want to, or can’t figure out how to carry the game back to you.
Putting it All Together
A successful day of hunting starts well before the season officially begins. It’s the weeks of planning prior that make all the difference. While we often remember to get our own equipment ready, order the new shotgun, prepare the maimai, or start feeding the pond, we might not give our dogs as much attention as they deserve.
Getting this bit right means that, regardless of how many birds we might get, I can confidently head out into the field knowing that I’ve done everything in my power to help set us up for a fun day of doing what my dog loves more than anything.
I know there will be things that I’ve overlooked, but that’s the beauty of starting to sort things now. I’ve created a buffer; a bit of time up my sleeve for those little oversights that inevitably happen.
How’s your preparation for the hunting season going? What’s on your list that isn’t on mine? Let us know in the comments.
Field Notes & Follies 
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