How to Train a Hunting Dog: Real-World Training for Shed Dogs, Tracking Dogs, Bird Dogs, and Gun Dogs

Training a hunting dog isn't about following a rigid checklist or racing to the finish line. Whether your goal is to train a shed dog, a deer tracking dog, a bird dog, or a versatile gun dog, the foundation is always the same — and it is the most important part of any hunting dog. A house built upon a weak foundation will inevitably fall.

Successful hunting dog training is less about checking boxes and more about building a foundation that holds up in real hunting situations. At DogBone, we've trained a plethora of different dog breeds for sheds, wounded deer recoveries, waterfowl, upland birds, and everything in between. While each discipline has its own unique characteristics, many traits needed for each overlap.

What Makes a Hunting Dog Different?

A hunting dog isn’t just performing commands — they’re making decisions.

They’re working through scent, terrain, pressure, distractions, fatigue, and excitement. Unlike obedience-only dogs, hunting dogs must stay mentally engaged for long periods of time and apply their training in unpredictable environments.

That’s why real hunting dog training can’t live entirely in a yard or a controlled training field. Training happens incrementally, slowly, and in new places. We break down individual skills and work on them standalone, and eventually bring multiple different skills together in training scenarios that mimic the hunt.

The Common Thread Between All Hunting Dogs

Shed dogs, deer tracking dogs, gun dogs, and bird dogs may look different in the field, but the building blocks are the same:

• A clear understanding of their job
• A strong desire to work with the handler
• The ability to use their nose
• Reliable retrieve and hold habits
• Calmness and control under excitement
• Rock solid basics: sit, stay, come when I call you

A good duck dog tracks crippled birds.
A good pheasant dog hunts running birds.
A good shed dog searches, finds, and retrieves antlers.
A good tracking dog follows a wounded deer’s trail under pressure.

Different outcomes — same foundation.

Why Step-By-Step Programs Break Down in the Field

Many training programs promise a step-by-step path to a finished hunting dog. The problem is that no two dogs are ever the same. The dog dictates the training, not the other way around.

Real training doesn’t move in straight lines. Dogs progress, regress, hit plateaus, and surprise you. Hunting dog training is about learning how to read your dog, adjust pressure, reinforce good habits, avoid bad habits, and fix problems when they show up.

That’s something you only learn by seeing training happen with real dogs in real situations, which is our focus in the DogBone Training Library.

Training for Real Hunts, Not Just Training Days

It’s easy to create a dog that looks good in training.
It’s harder to create a dog that transfers the controlled training into new, uncontrolled, and chaotic hunting situations.

Real hunting dog training means:

• Training in different locations
• Introducing realistic distractions
• Letting dogs work through problems
• Learning when to help — and when to step back

The goal isn’t perfection in practice.
The goal is reliability in the field.

From Family Dog to Finished Hunting Dog

One of the biggest misconceptions is that a hunting dog must come from a special background or be trained full-time from day one.

In reality, many of the best hunting dogs, and all of our dogs:

• Are family dogs first
• Basic obedience and foundational skills start the day the puppy comes home
• Foundational skills are the building blocks for more advanced training drills, excersizes, and commands
• Transferring the skills, drills, commands, and lessons from training into replicated hunting scenarios, and eventually, real hunts

With the right structure, patience, and exposure, dogs naturally grow into their roles. The handler’s job is to guide that process, not force it.

Where the DogBone Training Library Fits In

The DogBone Training Library was built for people who want to train their own hunting dogs — not follow a cookie-cutter course.

Inside the Training Library you’ll find:

• Our premium puppy training and foundation training videos
• Puppy to hunting training series, following day-to-day training of individual dogs
• Shed dog training videos, seminars, and more
• Deer tracking dog training videos, seminars, and more
• Gun dog and bird dog training videos, seminars, and more
• Real dogs, real problems, real solutions
• Actual hunts with many dogs featured in our training series

In addition to the content, Training Library members get exclusive access to direct email questions to Jeremy Moore, 10% off our DogBone online store!

Instead of telling you what to do in every situation, the library teaches you how to read and navigate your own dog, so you can adapt to your individual dog in training, and eventually, hunting.

Whether you’re raising your first puppy or refining an experienced hunting partner, the goal is the same: developing a dog that you trust, and trusts you, for all your future hunting endeavors.

Start your journey by subscribing to the DogBone Training Library today!