Gun Dog Forum

RatDog

Uhhhhhh....my bad I guess. I’ll plead ignorance on this one. Never heard that it was bad to hunt birds in poor weather. That’s when you want to hunt waterfowl. Couldn’t you argue the same about ducks, that they are stressed and you’re denying them access to needed food or loafing areas? If you didn’...

RatDog

My grandfather refuses to hunt pheasants with pointing dogs due to the running being confusing or hard on the dog. He is also fond of disparaging them as “getting up like a big balloon that any darn fool can hit”. He’s from the East Coast and will only hunt grouse, woodcock and quail. I have to say ...

RatDog

Ratdog We do not know what happens at the trainers. I had a fairly big name trainer launch a bird from a snow covered launcher that hit my dog. That dog is now a 12 year old AKC Master dog, she is a super dog. BUt, she has never went within 100 yards of a launcher again and certainly will not point...

RatDog

cjhills wrote:That is all very nice. However keep in mind if he has already been intimidated by launchers, he may remember and in that case it will be fixing a problem not starting over.........Cj

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RatDog

x2 on keeping the pup on wild birds, shoot the ones he points, hold fire when he flushes. Steady him up after this season and before his second season. Study and follow a program when you go to steady the pup vs trying to wing it based on a few paragraphs you read posted on the internet. Lauchers -...

RatDog

weimdogman wrote:Praise the heck out of him when he points and let's you flush the birds. Let him know how happy you are that he did it right.

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RatDog

That makes a lot of sense. I’m going to finish out the year as is then go that route in the off season. He’s made a lot of progress but nowhere near polished. I’d like to use the launcher/tip up to get him nice and staunch and stop creeping. If the birds hold tight he’s pointing them but he crowds t...

RatDog

averageguy wrote:Hunting in a blizzard was excellent yesterday.

That’s that hard core! Nice

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RatDog

Come on now! I know it’s not worse over there in the land of tater tot hot dish and lutefisk than it is here in NODAK. Get you a hat, gloves and some wool socks and get after it. At least when it’s nasty you know where they’re holed up at.

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RatDog

I did Black Gap, which is a ways South of Mid/Od in 2019. I was forced to hunt TX because I couldn't get down there until after NM season closed. Hunted a couple days with a reasonably good dog and never saw a single bird. Supposed to be some decent hunting there so IDK. There is a box you're suppo...

RatDog

Looks like I am headed to the Permian for work. Would love to try and squeeze in a couple of days chasing quail in TX or NM in the Midland/Odessa/Carlsbad area. I have zero experience with these birds and do not know the area well. If anyone is feeling generous I’ll take any advice or guidance you’r...

RatDog

averageguy wrote:Hence the often repeated "Birds make a Bird Dog"

Indeed

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RatDog

Had a lunch break session yesterday. Pretty cool that some of my best spots are practically in town. Maybe they get overlooked for that reason? We were walking up a draw with cut grain on one side and native grass on the other. There were some clumps of bushes in the bottom. It was nasty out. Snowin...

RatDog

Thanks for the feed back guys. Sounds like those Sylmar vests are worth a try.

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RatDog

funny ? vest story: I had my Jack Russell and setter out in the fields. The JRT was in a vest ( body close to the ground). The setter has never seen him in a vest before. The setter picked the JRT up by the vest and took off. I was scared to death that I was going to find my JRT with broken legs. T...

RatDog

MNTonester wrote:I use a Sylmar for Oscar and it is well made and functional

Cool. I’ll check that one out. Thanks!

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RatDog

I’m pretty new at this but I have only ever heard that doing actual “road work” like putting the dog in a harness and forcing it to run extended distances for pre-season conditioning isn’t advisable before a year. The idea that hunting in the field could be detrimental sounds like baloney to me. It ...

RatDog

Can anyone offer recommendations for vests? My little dude has started getting his undercarriage a bit raw since pheasants opened and we've been in the thick stuff. I was looking at one called the Skidplate for that purpose but I am also wondering if anyone hunts their pointing dog with one of the w...

RatDog

Great pic! I am a Browning man myself

RatDog

What a beautiful looking dog! Thats awesome

RatDog

Not a bad haul for a half days work. Tubbs is really coming along! Both yesterday and today he had some legitimately nice dog work and finds. Seems we have broken through to another phase of his development which is a welcome change after the flushing phase. Couple of the highlights: - the best by f...

RatDog

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RatDog

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RatDog

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RatDog

Wow! Thanks for kind words boys! We are doing our best. I’ll spare you the whole sad story but I was laid off until pretty recently and then I had Covid so I couldn’t work again until I tested negative. Normally I’m on a rotation but things are so weird in the oil patch I don’t really have a set sch...

RatDog

We opted to stay around here. Found one covey of Huns that flushed wild. They busted up and we managed to find a couple of the groups. Tubbs had one really nice find on a double that was up a spur off the main gulley in some bushes. I shot one of those. Nice way to finish off a good day. Today we ar...

RatDog

Well that couldn’t have gone more differently! First spot, three shots and three roosters down. We walked the cattails up this little ditch and it was like a European driven shoot. Birds everywhere. Only unfortunate thing was the third bird went down in the middle of a little farm pond. There was a ...

RatDog

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RatDog

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RatDog

Today was painful. Tough one for the home squad. We moved an absolutely preposterous number of birds, especially sharpies but also lots of pheasants and a handful of Huns. I scratched out one grouse and one partridge. Tubbs has gone from being meek as a lamb to having a mad glint of violence in his ...

RatDog

Understood. No e-collar around birds! All I was trying to say is that when you know he just hit scent hard and pauses for a beat it’s hard to let him keep going without doing anything. That is what I’ll continue to do without saying a peep. Patience has never been a strong suit of mine so maybe it’l...

RatDog

I think maybe I could use some encouragement to stay the course here. I’ve had my dog on wild birds 15 days so far he has gone from being timid and not very sure of himself but occasionally pointing to a heat seeking missile heck bent on flushing birds! I love the drive and building it was the goal...

RatDog

I think maybe I could use some encouragement to stay the course here. I’ve had my dog on wild birds 15 days so far he has gone from being timid and not very sure of himself but occasionally pointing to a heat seeking missile heck bent on flushing birds! I love the drive and building it was the goal ...

RatDog

I ordered some of the Lewis vented rubber boots. We’ll see how it goes. I think the stubble, especially that cut canola which is like stalks instead of grass stems. Thing is the Hungarians are especially fond of canola and they are my favorite!

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RatDog

Thanks! I’m going to try the wash then Vaseline and put a sock on him then duct tape it. It’ll look stupid but whatever. I’ll order some of those products and give them a try.

Any recommendations for booties for hunting? Figured I’d check gun dog supply.

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RatDog

You've been running him a lot. A couple of days off to let it heal won't kill either one of you. Any athlete knows that recovery days help overall performance. As far as him being a pain, he needs to learn to settle so you can use this as an opportunity to start teaching him how to behave. Maybe do...

RatDog

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RatDog

Ever since the beginning of the season we’ve been having foot troubles. I am pretty sure the trainer who had him didn’t do much with him and therefore his feet weren’t conditioned for the kind of miles we’ve been putting on. Pretty much everything has cleared up except this one really persistent cra...

RatDog

Yeah man that wind was a bear. The pheasants seem to tolerate it better than some of the other species but just not a lot of fun to hunt when it’s howling like that. Glad you got into some birds!

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RatDog

Great pic. Nothing like a big flush of prairie birds to get the blood pumping!

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RatDog

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20201011/c00d1069ca44fe577d6da8df1540f22c.jpg Day 12: one really great thing and a couple of not so good ones. The best thing that happened; a rooster got up out of a thicket in a coulee on a hillside, I shot it but when it went down it started running like the road...

RatDog

Sharon wrote:Good to feel your excitement and joy in your posts. Good for you!

Thanks Sharon! We are having a lot of fun which is the point after all

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RatDog

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RatDog

Whew! Me and Tubby had a day. Pheasants were where they were supposed to be. The Huns and Sharpies were in a sage flat down by a creek which was a pleasant surprise. Lots of mistakes by both of us, couple nice things happened. All good! Turns out Montana is pretty alright also [emoji4] Sent from my ...

RatDog

Got our first pheasant. There were so many birds around he was just losing it and that’s fine. This guy flushed wild so I popped him. The rest were too far or the cover was too thick. I took some dumb shots that I’ll try and leave alone next time. Hard not to get a bit of the buck fever when they ar...

RatDog

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RatDog

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RatDog

deseeker wrote: ↑
Fri Oct 09, 2020 8:18 pm
That's great Sounds like he really starting to come around. I've got a feeling he is going to have alot of birds shot over him this Fall

Thanks. I'm sure going to give it the ol' college try.

RatDog

Short, post work walk. Tubbs found and flushed a covey of Huns in some pasture next to wheat stubble. Didn’t seem to me he crowded them too bad before they went, just touchy birds. Too far to shoot. Next spot was some cover on a fence line between harvested canola and wheat fields. Those are two of ...

RatDog

The looking at you when he is on point was a thing I was going to address and forgot. It is generally a sign of some kind of stress. He was very young when he was at Steve's. A lot of pro trainers are not good with timid dogs. They need to produce results quickly and do not have time to mess with a...

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