At the end of a hunting day, you cannot say you had a great day if you don’t have a dog standing by your side. Why should you go hunting by yourself, when you could have a dog retrieve the waterfowl for you? Dogs are a very important part of goose hunting, therefore you should definitely take them into consideration when taking up this type of hunting. Therefore, if you want to have good results, get yourself a puppy and either have it trained or learn how to train your dog for goose hunting.

Your first step should be picking a breed. Make a research among the most popular goose hunting breeds and see which one fits you best. For example, if you want to have the dog both as a hunting partner and as a member of the family, you should know that Border Collie are a bit difficult to deal with indoors. In this case, probably your best option would be the Golden Retriever, a dog with a great personality, always willing to obey and do its best.

Then, introduce the puppy to water. Make sure it understands that water is good and fun and give it rewards so that it gets used to working with it for many hours per day. However, don’t exaggerate and don’t splash the puppy, as you will ruin everything. Golden Retrievers are perfect at his, as they love water very much.

Training your dog for goose hunting firstly should be focused on teaching it the right commands. Once the puppy knows the basics, it is ready for the next level. Another thing you should have in mind is teaching it how to be obedient. Make sure it always listens to you and sees you as superior. You wouldn’t want it to hurt the goose when retrieving it, for example. The puppy will definitely get excited about the water, once it gets used to it, but make it understand that it cannot play all the time.

From then on, all you have to do is get him used to the scent of waterfowl. Dogs are known to have an incredible sense of smell, which they can use when retrieving. It would be a shame not to take advantage of this. Also, now is the moment to teach it the difference between real goose and decoys.

The next step is taking it out in the field to get it used to real hunting situations. By now, it should already be able to make the difference between a decoy and a real goose. If you are planning on hunting on a boat, take it with you and teach it how to load in and out and retrieve dummies from the boat. The more you reward it during training, the more it will surprise you in the field.

If in other types of hunting bringing a dog into the game is an option, as far as goose hunting is concerned, it is more of a must. However, if you feel that all these things are too much for you, don’t be afraid to turn to professional trainers.