"SURTOUT - LE FLUSH!"
By: Don Nicol
Permission to reprint.A couple of years ago my hunting buddy Gerard and I were accompanied on a hunt by a French field trialler of English Setters. We were after brown quail and hunting them in an area of tall, tropical grass in south – east Queensland. Afterwards he told us how much he enjoyed the experience but he said above all he enjoyed the way my GSP “Toghue” flushed game on command – “Surtout le flush!” he said, never having seen it before.
It has always quietly amused me how some people are surprised to see a Shorthair break from an intense point on voice command, to lunge forward with nose to the ground and feet forward. The birds of course get up with a strong flush. The shooter is well prepared since the dog moving from the point to the flushing and directs the gun for where the birds will come, thereby facilitating good preparedness for the shot at the departing birds.
Why do I train my dogs to flush on command? The reasons I do it are based on the practical requirements of my bird hunting. I have lived most of my adult life in the tropics and subtropics where very often the dog is hunting in heavy cover with tall grass blocking your view of the dog on point. Very often you hunt by listening and when silence prevails because the dog in on point, you know instinctively where the dog is even if you can’t see him.
In many cases it makes better sense to position yourself where you are in thew clear rather than going to where the dog is. Pushing through tall cover, often with uneven understorey sometimes does not make sense but positioning yourself to anticipate the exit of the game from where you surmise the dog is, does.
With my present dog I can command him to flush anywhere to up to 50 metres and he will immediately launch himself forward to where he has the game pinned. This makes for exciting shooting and is also very efficient.
When I lived in the New England of Australia, the main quarry was rabbit, often in the bracken fern or varying types of bramble (blackberry) patch. Very often my shorthair would be on point on a bunny but I could not see the dog for the cover of the brambles. Again the command “flush” allowed you to pinpoint the dog on the noise of the flush and you were ready with your shotgun pointed towards an opening to get the shot at the departing bunny. Without the flush on command, I suspect I would have tended to leave my Shorthair at home and just taken the spaniels that I owned at the time. The English call the utility breeds HPR breeds but I think HPFR is a better description; Hunt, Point, Flush & Retrieve.
So now that I have hopefully proven the logic of why I teach the flush, how do I do it in practice?
Training a GSP I contend is the most difficult of all gundog breeds. That is because you have so many different tasks to master. However the great thing about this breed is the versatility of the breed to perform multi-tasks. The dog can hunt and point very well. It can retrieve very well from water and it can track scents of wounded game very effectively.
I suspect ‘bird dog’ purists would strongly criticise the breaking of the point or roading with the command “Flush”. GSPs however are not dogs for purists and they are very adaptable.
Training the Flush
The way I do it is as follows;
I train the flush as part and parcel of early pointing training. I only introduce the flush on wild birds. In the early part of field training I spend a lot of time teaching the dog to quarter, continually into the prevailing wind. Early quartering is done on areas that are free or sparse of birds. Eventually I move to ‘birdy’ areas, where eventually I get a point or two. At this stage the dog is from 9-12 months old, but some won’t point until later.At first when the dog points I tend to walk to the dog and run my hand down his back saying all the time “good boy, good boy”. I will staunch him by pushing him forward at his shoulder, by holding his tail or even picking him up in my arms and repositioning hem. Once the point is solid and he knows what it is all about, I will introduce the “flush” command, I do this by moving to the head of the pointing dog and facing, the head of the dog I command “Flush” strongly, emphasising the “Shhh”. At the same time I use my left arm to indicate to the dog to go forward and with my left leg I stomp the ground. Naturally, with all this commotion, the bird(s) normally flush.
At the flush, I immediately command the dog to sit (hup), getting him to watch the birds flying, while remaining steady. If steadiness to flush is an issue I would use a check cord but really, if you have progressed steadily with obedience with your dog through all the stages, a check cord is rarely needed. If the birds flush before I give the “flush” command, then I just sit the dog, telling him to “watch” the departing birds.
By the end of this period I could do the following with the dog;
At this point I can hear purists screaming, “You will spoil the intensity of the dog and will prevent it from developing its own bird sense”.
While I can agree it will interfere somewhat with the way the dog handles birds initially, I would argue the net result is in its favour. The dog knows where the birds are and is able to wait for the command to flush.
As the dog learns to read moving birds you can wait until the dog becomes staunch once again before commanding the flush, but in truth you can command the roading dog to flush while on the move and in this way he will move ahead of the ‘constraints’ set by his nose (“eye”) and go strongly forward to flush ahead. The key to a good flushing dog in my opinion is the outcome of the first few times you train the flushing command. In the versatile breeds I am convinces that clear command, use of body language (actions) and hand commands the first few times you introduce a new facet of work, determines the speed at which the dog learns new skills and adds to its repertoire. These key steps in training are always planned so that the outcome is the best possible for the dog.
Most of my “flushing” training has been done on wild quail in heavy grass cover. The dog scents the game and points staunchly. I can walk up behind and stroke him but then quickly I can command flush and take control of the situation. Three or four successful sessions and the dog is a lifetime flusher.
Another point of view
A friend (Elio Colasimone) who has trained 4 Field Trial Champions and is a keen hunter pointed out that all of the six dogs he has trained were introduced to the flush in an almost identical way.
The results? Two were brilliant, one very good, one good, one fair and one fairly ordinary.
The best flushing dogs gave a greater kill to shot ratio and were always great to work over. Not only does it look good but it is extremely effective in presenting game to the gun.He points out that the demands on the dogs are hugely contradictory. One the one hand you want a brisk to fast, free flowing, seeking pattern. Then you expect stylish, intense game holding points. Suddenly you want the dogs to break that electrifying intensity to burst forward to the game and all at once you demand that the dog's intensity is focussed on the fleeing game.... while completely still - A big ask really!!!
Some dogs adapt more readily to these contradictory demands. Some never quite master it and become mesmerised while holding the point. Their pointing instinct overwhelms all else. This does not mean that they are dominant game finders or that they have particular intense points. In fact the most dominant game finders and most intense and stylish dogs were the best at flushing.
Certain lines appear to produce greater proportions of hard flushing dogs, whilst other lines produce peculiarities in the flushing styles.
It is also fairly evident that some handlers seem to have the ability to produce effective flushing and others produce one sticky dog after another.
The over emphasis and the sheer excitement of watching dogs go on point makes inexperienced handlers focus too much on the point, repeating all the key cues that keep the dog mesmerised.....'good dog'........'good dog'......stroking, stroking, stroking etc.
Most success seems to come if the dogs work wild game and even manage to catch a piece of game.
The matter of fact movement towards the pointing dog, a sharp "FLUSH" command whilst standing beside it and briskly moving forward often does the trick in the early stages.The problem comes when all the usual tricks do not work.......and that is a whole chapter in its own right.
© Don Nicol 2004.