Our Ruffed Grouse Dogs: Flushers

In my opinion, Flushers don’t get enough love in the grouse woods. Most of the old stories and accounts of exceptional grouse dogs focus primarily on pointing breeds. In most cases, flushers are lucky to get a passing sentence in the story, if they appear at all. For us, we don’t leave home without a flushing dog, and they are a critical part of how we hunt grouse. In this article, I’ll go over how we use these dogs, the pros and cons we’ve experienced, and then talk through some of the areas we focus on for training.

How We Use Them

For us, we rarely take only a flushing dog out for a hunt. In most cases, they are part of a three-dog team consisting of two pointing dogs and a flusher. Our flushers spend a lot of time hunting with pointing dogs, and we ask a lot of them. They have become our security blankets. These are the dogs we call on to clean up any messes left by either ourselves or the pointing dogs. For most of the hunt, our flushers work independently of the pointers. They are close to us, flushing any birds the pointing dogs may have missed on their way through. But when a dog goes on point, we count on our flushing dog to finish the job. Their primary jobs are flushing pointed birds and retrieving any we shoot. It's a pretty good life for a flushing dog, and they add a lot to the hunting experience.

Pros

Better Shooting Opportunities

If you grouse hunt with pointing dogs enough, there will come a time when flushing a pointed bird means giving up a shot opportunity. The cover grouse live in can be so thick that you can’t even lift your gun to shoot. Yet, 10 feet away is a nice, open shooting lane. This is where the flushing dog comes in. With a flushing dog, you can set up in a comfortable shooting location, then send them in to do the dirty work of flushing the bird. This not only allows you better shooting opportunities, but it saves a considerable amount of time. A dog will locate the bird much quicker compared to you trudging around through the brush trying to kick it up. This is especially useful if you come across a woodcock. Those birds tend to avoid flushing until they are basically stepped on. Our flushing dogs allow us to shoot from comfortable, open areas rather than being caught flat-footed with our guns down. For us, this leads to better-quality shots. Sadly, better shots don't always lead to more birds, but that isn't the dog's fault.

Faster Bird Pick-Up

The two primary functions of our flushing dogs are to flush pointed birds and retrieve shot birds. Because they are doing a majority of the retrieving, they get pretty good at marking and locating shot birds. It can be very difficult to find a downed grouse or woodcock, as their camouflage makes them nearly invisible. I’ve spent 20 or 30 minutes walking through the same area looking for a bird that fell stone dead. I had to all but step on the bird to find it. That 20 or 30 minutes turns into 20 or 30 seconds with a good retrieving dog. They are also critical if a wounded bird decides to run and bury themselves in a hole. There are at least a couple dozen birds a year that we would have never found without our flusher. Of all the dogs I've hunted with, my flushers have been the most willing to hunt for downed birds. My pointing dogs tend to want to go find the next bird, and they can be hard to keep in the area. My flushers, likely because of how many reps they get, do a better job of staying focused on finding the shot bird before moving on.

They Find Birds

On top of flushing pointed birds, and doing a vast majority of the retrieving, they also find a lot of birds for us. A dog can't find every bird in the woods. The two pointing dogs do a good job, but there are always birds that go undetected. That is where the flushing dog steps in and ensures we walk by as few birds as possible. Because they hunt a much smaller area than a pointing dog, they cover that area considerably better. Any bird left behind by the pointing dogs is likely to be found when the flushing dog comes through.

Cons

Access to birds

For our grouse hunting style, the main downside to only hunting a flusher is access to birds. What I mean by that, is because a flusher needs to be within shooting range to be effective, they don’t have the freedom to range out and find new areas. Ruffed grouse change the types of cover they live in depending on the season, but also the time of day. This can make it difficult to locate them on any given day. When hunting with a flusher, you're limited to hunting only the areas you walk. Because of that, it can be difficult to locate birds at times. We have had many instances of pointing dogs bringing us to areas we never intended to hunt that ended up holding a lot of birds. We never would have found those areas if we were only hunting with a flusher.

Advanced Training

For our flushers to be successful hunting with two pointing dogs, they require a fair amount of training. We are asking a lot from these dogs, and most of the behaviors have to be trained. It takes a couple of years of training and development before they are fully dialed in. This of course only applies if you plan to regularly hunt your flusher with pointing dogs. If you plan to hunt them by themselves, you can get away with quite a bit less training. On the other hand, if you’re someone who enjoys training and loves working with your dog, this could be a positive. I included it in the cons list because of the considerable time commitment involved.

Training Focus Areas 

On any given grouse hunt, we are asking our dogs to hunt within range, avoid flushing birds found by the pointing dogs, find any shot or wounded birds, and do it all with little to no help from us. When walking up on a point, constantly talking or giving commands can cause the bird to flush early. Our flushers need to be able to read and understand situations and respond appropriately without any commands. Below are the main training areas we focus on to try and get the most out of our flushers.

Steadiness

Steadiness is an absolute must for our flushers in the grouse woods. Consider that the most common way we are using them is either flushing a bird or making a retrieve. In most instances, when we get up to a dog on point we will make a first attempt at flushing the bird. If we are unsuccessful, then we send in the flusher to finish the job. That means that our flushers have to remain steady while remotely sitting some 10-20 yards away from us kicking around in the brush. Then, remain steady through our shooting so they can mark the retrieve. While you may or may not require this kind of steadiness for your situation, a dog will mark shot birds better if they have the chance to watch them fall. Training some level of steadiness will lead to less time spent looking for downed birds, and more time spent hunting.

Sit to flush

Sit to flush goes along with steadiness but is a little different. Sit to flush is when the dog flushes the bird, then immediately sits. This does a couple of things. First, it allows the dog to get a good mark on any shot birds, and second, it prevents the dog from being inadvertently shot. One of the most common ways dogs get shot is by jumping at a low-flying bird right as the gun goes off. All that can be avoided if the dog sits as soon as the bird flushes.

Backing

We allow our flushers freedom to look for and find birds. They don’t walk them at heal the entire hunt to keep them from messing up a shooting opportunity. With that, there are times they see a dog on point before we do. In this instance, it’s important they don’t rush in and flush the bird. We train our flushers to back just as you would a pointing dog. Backing is where a dog sees another dog on point, and rather than rushing in and flushing the bird, they stop. For a flusher, that means sitting as soon as they see a dog on point. By training this we can allow our flushers more freedom, and ultimately find more birds by allowing them to hunt.

Retrieving

Retrieving is one of those skills that comes very naturally to some dogs, and others not so much. In our experience, most dogs can benefit from some sort of retrieving training. For us, having a clean, speedy retrieve allows us to get back to hunting and spend less time kicking around in the brush looking for downed birds. It also makes a big difference if you end up wounding a bird that takes off running. We have had grouse hit the ground and run like a pheasant, finding a hole in a log or stump to hide under. In those cases, having a dog experienced in tracking and good at retrieving is critical. It can be the difference between recovering that bird or not. A dog who is good at retrieving is the ultimate conservation tool, so we spend a good amount of time working on that skill.

Conclusion

While not talked about as much, flushing dogs absolutely have a place in the grouse woods and can be very effective hunting partners. If you plan to hunt them with a pointing dog, be sure to spend some time on their training. Hunting pointers and flushers together can be one of the most enjoyable upland hunting experiences out there. If you intend to hunt a flusher on its own, there is still plenty of great grouse hunting to be had.