Upland training will begin on Saturday, January 11th at the Richard Bong State Recreation Area, and will run through Saturday, March 8th or until we have run out of training birds, whichever happens sooner. There is currently no training planned for Saturday, February 16th, which is the first day of the WISILL Upland Hunt Test at Tom’s Game Farm, 1591 State Road 120 in Elkhorn. Please plan on meeting each Saturday at the Richard Bong State Recreation Area by 8:00 am and look for the gathering of vehicles on the runway or in a parking lot off the main paved road when you arrive. This year’s training coordinators are David Pesch, Zach McFarland, and Paul Johnson. If you can assist with set up, please arrive by 7:30 am. Every attempt will be made to hold training every Saturday morning, but may have to be cancelled or moved to Sunday in the case of inclement weather.
Training Birds
- Hen pheasants will be used for upland training. The cost is $19.00 per bird. Money will be collected each Saturday before training begins. Please bring the correct amount or cash for the number of birds ordered, or a check made out to WISILL HRC for the correct amount for your birds.
- You must order your birds by 7:00 pm on Thursday of each week.
- To order birds send an email to David Pesch at wisillupland@gmail.com and include the number of birds you wish to reserve. If you order birds and cannot make training, please call or text Dave no later than 6:30 am Saturday morning at (262) 497-0471. Your birds will be cancelled.
- If you order birds, do not show up for training, and have not contacted David, an attempt will be made to sell the birds. If we cannot sell them, we will need to charge you for the birds.
Safety in the Field
- Wear blaze orange. At a minimum, a blaze orange hat and 50% of your upper body should be covered by blaze orange.
- Please make sure you are familiar with basic gun safety rules prior to the first day of training. First and foremost, upland training must be safe for everyone involved.
- We will review gun safety with all participants the first week. If someone handles a gun in an unsafe manner, he or she will be asked not to gun for the rest of that training day.
Upland Training
- The standard we will be training to will be in accordance with the rules for an upland hunt test. These hunt test rules may be found at the following link:
https://www.ukcdogs.com/docs/rulebooks/hunting-retriever-rulebook-2023.pdf.
- If you have a young dog, you may want to focus on quartering, hunting available cover, staying in gun range, and whistle sitting prior to introducing live birds.
- Bring a whistle! We teach our dogs to quarter in the field using a whistle command.
- If you would like to be a gunner, please provide your own shotgun; the club will provide 12 and 20 gauge ammunition.
- We will need bird planters. Please pitch in and help. If you are unsure of what you can do, please ask. We will be happy to train you, not just your dog!
Bong requires you to have a training permit, a runway pass, and a Wisconsin state park sticker. We begin training at 8:00 am each day, but the park office doesn’t open until 9:00 am. Please plan accordingly! You may want to purchase your park sticker online or Bong has a Kiosk available to purchase state park stickers if the office is not open