Is Your Dog Ready for Hunting Season? Here's How We Prepare Ours All Year Long

Every fall, we hear the same thing from hunters who pick up puppies from other breeders: “He's just not doing what I thought he would out there.”

It's not the dog's fault. It's the calendar's fault.

A lab doesn't walk into a duck blind ready to work just because hunting season started. That kind of dog — the one that marks a bird at 80 yards, holds steady at the shot, and delivers to hand with a soft mouth — is built over 12 months of consistent, intentional work. Here at Hillcrest Farm, that's exactly what Judd and I do all year long. And we want to pull back the curtain on what that actually looks like.

It Starts With Obedience — Always

Before any dog in our program picks up a bumper or hears a shot, they master obedience. Not just “sit when there's nothing exciting happening” obedience. Real obedience — heel, sit, stay, here — in distracting environments, around other dogs, and under pressure.

Here's why this matters so much: a dog who isn't responsive on the ground isn't going to be responsive in a blind. The excitement of birds, water, gunfire, and other dogs will override everything if that foundation isn't rock solid first. We don't rush this. We won't.

Every lab we train — whether it's a puppy we bred or a client dog coming in for our board-and-train program — starts here. Obedience isn't a box to check. It's the entire foundation everything else gets built on.

Building Gun Dog Fundamentals

Once obedience is locked in, Judd starts layering in the fundamentals specific to gun dog work. This includes introduction to retrieving, steadiness at the line, basic hand signals, and getting the dog comfortable with gunfire.

The gun introduction piece is something a lot of people get wrong. Too many dogs are fire-shy because someone thought it would be fine to let them hear a shotgun cold with no preparation. We work through sound sensitivity methodically — starting with distant shots while the dog is engaged in something exciting, building confidence slowly, until the sound of a gun means birds are coming, not something scary is happening.

We use dummy launchers, duck calls, and plenty of repetition with our Zinger Winger bird throwers to simulate the real-deal hunting experience in a controlled way. The dogs learn that the launcher going off equals a bird in the air — which means their job is about to get fun.

Field Work on 200 Acres

This is where Hillcrest Farm's setting becomes a serious advantage. We have 200 acres to work with — training fields, ponds, and a creek running through the property. Our dogs don't learn to retrieve in a backyard or a parking lot. They learn in the actual environments they'll be expected to perform in.

Water work is a big part of what we do. Labs are natural swimmers, but being a good hunting dog in water requires more than just willingness to get wet. We work on water entries, swimming lines to falls, blind retrieves in water, and returning with the bird rather than shaking off 30 yards from the handler. Our ponds give us the ability to run multiple water setups, and the creek offers natural obstacles and varying depths that keep training realistic.

Land work runs alongside water work throughout the year. Handling, pattern blinds, multiple marks, and steadiness under pressure — all built incrementally, so that by the time September rolls around, we're not cramming. We're polishing.

Five Zinger Wingers and a Year-Round Commitment

We run five Zinger Winger bird throwers on our property. These are remote-operated machines that throw dummies or birds in realistic arcs, allowing us to run multiple marks simultaneously without needing several helpers in the field. They're a serious training tool, and we use them consistently throughout the year — not just in October.

That consistent, year-round approach is what separates a lab that can hunt from one that truly excels. Dogs don't stay sharp on their own. They need repetition, variety, and progressive challenge to maintain and grow their skills.

Judd's approach is methodical and patient. He reads each dog individually — knowing when to push, when to back off, when a dog needs more time on fundamentals before moving forward. That instinct comes from years of working with labs, and it's reflected in every dog we send home.

Family Dogs That Hunt — For Real

The thing we're most proud of at Hillcrest Farm isn't that our dogs can hunt. It's that our dogs can hunt and sleep on the couch with your kids on the same day.

We get asked all the time: “Can a dog really do both?” Yes. Absolutely yes. But only if they're bred right, trained right, and handled right. That's the combination we're committed to with every litter and every training program we run.

Storm, one of our breeding dogs, holds an AKC Master Hunter title — the highest level of hunt test recognition in AKC. That title isn't handed out; it's earned through proven performance in the field under the eyes of trained judges. It tells you something about the genetics and training behind our program.

Thinking About Training for Your Dog?

If your lab is heading into this hunting season underprepared — or if you want to make sure your puppy from us is ready for next fall — we'd love to talk. Our gun dog training program typically runs at least two months for hunting dogs, and it starts with that same obedience foundation we described above.

Whether your dog is a puppy from our program or a dog you've had for a few years, there's a path forward. Reach out and let's figure out what your dog needs.

Contact us at [email protected] to learn more about our training programs.

Because every hunting season deserves a dog that's ready for it. 🐾