noharleyyet
Well-known member
Looks like a blast Tyler...so cool when success intersects with fellowship and working dogs.
New dog journey...
- Thread starter 1_pointer
- Start date
Hank sure is a nice looking dog. It's pretty hard to screw them up when you're hunting wild birds, especially if he's trying to point them.
Were these public hunting areas you were at? That stuff looks like it's tailor made for pointing dogs.
Were these public hunting areas you were at? That stuff looks like it's tailor made for pointing dogs.
Thanks guys!
JLS- Private land, but public access. NoDak calls their program PLOTS. I downloaded an ESRI app and their dataset to navigate to them. If we saw roosters we'd ask permission and it was granted on all but one occasion. Intact grass/shelterbelts adjacent to corn always seemed to have birds.
JLS- Private land, but public access. NoDak calls their program PLOTS. I downloaded an ESRI app and their dataset to navigate to them. If we saw roosters we'd ask permission and it was granted on all but one occasion. Intact grass/shelterbelts adjacent to corn always seemed to have birds.
Hunting Wife
Well-known member
Nice! It's always a great day when they start putting things together.
Thanks again! We still aren't where I'm hoping to get to, but we put birds in the bag and had fun. I'm heading out Saturday morning to buy a few pheasants to set loose on the conservation club I belong to. Be interesting to see how that goes...
Brittany Chukarman
Well-known member
Good idea. Give him as much time in the field as you can this year. Sometimes they figure things out just by doing.
What a great pheasant hunt. That's on my bucket list. In the early 70's I hunted out of Twin Falls,Id. It was like that where if you saw birds and asked permission it was usually granted.
What a great pheasant hunt. That's on my bucket list. In the early 70's I hunted out of Twin Falls,Id. It was like that where if you saw birds and asked permission it was usually granted.
Two of the 3 guys with me have lived or live around Twin Falls. They said in the late '70s early '80's it was bonzo for roosters. BOY still kills quite a few around Treasure Valley, but he puts in a lot of work to do so.
I realize that I'm probably going to jinx Hank and I's progress, but last night was awesome! We didn't have much time at the conservation club as it gets dark so early due to the stupid time change, but we did get some work in. I took both boys with me and sent them and Hank on a walk to burn off some exuberance of all 3 while I laid out a drag trail with a dead pheasant. When Hank got back, I put him on the start and with a "dead bird" command he took off like a hound dog with his nose to the ground. Barely overran it came back found it and brought it back! Next up we worked on points with the launcher and homing pigeons. He locked up great on all 5 birds and at much greater distances than normal and without me having to stop him with the check cord!! The last one I got mixed up on which clump of grass I hid the launcher and was getting a bit disappointed that he had overran it, but he locked up and sure enough he was right and I was not! As I was putting stuff away I had my oldest lay out a track with the dead rooster. I told him to go about 100 steps and to leave it. I turn around to find him 70yds away doing zig zags through the grass! So much for following instructions... 
I got Hank and lined him out on the track and just waited. He followed it down of the hill and then I lost sight of him. Just as I started to see where he went, here it came charging up the hill with the rooster! I know these are small things, but it was probably the best night of training we've ever had. Not sure if the conditions were just better than in the past or if the experience with the wild birds flipped a switch (I so hope this is the case!) but it was a fun night. I celebrated with a beer and he got a few extra treats once we got home.
I got Hank and lined him out on the track and just waited. He followed it down of the hill and then I lost sight of him. Just as I started to see where he went, here it came charging up the hill with the rooster! I know these are small things, but it was probably the best night of training we've ever had. Not sure if the conditions were just better than in the past or if the experience with the wild birds flipped a switch (I so hope this is the case!) but it was a fun night. I celebrated with a beer and he got a few extra treats once we got home.Until Saturday, about all Hank's been up to is a day or so a week pointing pigeons in launchers. He's gotten to the point where he points them and just doesn't barge in and try to grab them. This Saturday, my schedule and the weather cooperated so him and I headed to a local preserve. I had 5 quail put out and marked. He found all 5 and had 3 good points. The other two he pointed but broke too early. Not sure if he's backpedaling or if the bird moving in front of him was just too enticing... Either way we were able to bring 4 of the 5 home. One flushed low and inline with him so I wasn't able to get a shot off. We tried our best, but couldn't turn it up later. All in all I was pretty happy with his finding and pointing of birds. Now the retrieving part...
He found all of them and started bringing them to me, like he's always done in the past. However, this time he started spitting them out before he got to me. Not sure why he decided to start doing that. He got to where he wouldn't even pick them back up! So, I gave him the sit command, placed the bird in his mouth made him hold it for a bit before giving him the Give command and taking the bird from him. Any suggestions/critiques of if this was the proper thing to do would be greatly appreciated!
I have a few pigeons in the freezer so I thawed one out and did some short retrieving drills in the yard on Sunday after a few bumper tosses. A few times with the pigeon and some treats as rewards and he started bringing it back to me and holding it until I gave the Give command. I'll keep up on this if you folks think this is a good fix.
Now to ask a question. When he does pick up a bird, he's crunching them a bit more than I'd like. Suggestions on how to start working on fixing that? He does also chew his bumpers a bit when retrieving them. The crunching didn't seem to be a big problem with pheasants, but with quail it was too much. Looking forward to hearing some suggestions.
Next Saturday we're going to be back at the same place but for a couple of roosters instead. Now that the days are getting longer I should have a bit more time to get him to the conservation club and we're going to start the process of working on being steady to flush. They have a training table/board setup there that was built for this, so we'll be starting that.
All in all it was a pretty good/fun day!
Either way we were able to bring 4 of the 5 home. One flushed low and inline with him so I wasn't able to get a shot off. We tried our best, but couldn't turn it up later. All in all I was pretty happy with his finding and pointing of birds. Now the retrieving part... He found all of them and started bringing them to me, like he's always done in the past. However, this time he started spitting them out before he got to me. Not sure why he decided to start doing that. He got to where he wouldn't even pick them back up! So, I gave him the sit command, placed the bird in his mouth made him hold it for a bit before giving him the Give command and taking the bird from him. Any suggestions/critiques of if this was the proper thing to do would be greatly appreciated!
I have a few pigeons in the freezer so I thawed one out and did some short retrieving drills in the yard on Sunday after a few bumper tosses. A few times with the pigeon and some treats as rewards and he started bringing it back to me and holding it until I gave the Give command. I'll keep up on this if you folks think this is a good fix.
Now to ask a question. When he does pick up a bird, he's crunching them a bit more than I'd like. Suggestions on how to start working on fixing that? He does also chew his bumpers a bit when retrieving them. The crunching didn't seem to be a big problem with pheasants, but with quail it was too much. Looking forward to hearing some suggestions.
Next Saturday we're going to be back at the same place but for a couple of roosters instead. Now that the days are getting longer I should have a bit more time to get him to the conservation club and we're going to start the process of working on being steady to flush. They have a training table/board setup there that was built for this, so we'll be starting that.
All in all it was a pretty good/fun day!
Don't view it as a bad thing. Just be patient and work it all the way through to dead birds.
I used. Harlow Johnson's "Training the Versatile Dog".
You can go too hard on the ear pinch and shut your dog down. Be patient and read what he's telling you.
