What age to introduce birds?

[Gertie]

I'm just wondering what age y'all introduce birds, what breed of dog you have and the rationale for that specific age?

[quanah labs]

I had my lab on pigeons and a couple juvenile ginnies at 8 weeks old. I wanted to get that bird chasing fire started at a young age. It was so cool to see my little girl chasing and catching those birds, she was so proud and happy trotting around the yard with a bird in her mouth. There is nothing like the real thing! The pointer guys might feel different about this but I feel that a retriever needs to taste and chase birds at a very young age as long as the birds are clipped and tapped up to where they are unable to hurt or scare the little puppy.

[AzDoggin]

Obviously you don't want to get a young pup spooked by a live bird - slapped in the face by a wing or whatever, but...I agree with quanah, some exposure when young is a very good thing. I used to kill a bird and let the pup nose it, carry it around, just mess with it. They are usually very interested...

Jerome Robinson wrote about exposing an 8 week old pup (pointing breed) to live pigeons that were inside of mesh bags. Dog was on a leash or checkcord so he could be controlled a little, but according to Jerome it's a good thing to get that thirst for birds stoked early. Then you keep pup back, and let the pigeon fly off. A few of those encounters a week and you have a birdy little pup.

[Gertie]

Thanks guys. Good comments. Keep 'em coming.

[grouseguy]

Thanks guys. Good comments. Keep 'em coming.

Had my setter on pen raised birds at about 12 weeks. She was startled a little by the first one but then got excited and started flash pointing after that.

[DonF]

My pup's start whenever they want. I happy time them a lot the first year and they are free to chase all the "bleep" birds they want. Somewhere around 6 mos I'll put pigeons in remote traps and start poping them for them, just a couple now and then. One thing I am absolutely certain of is that the desire for birds is bred in and I can bring that out anytime I want. Between being a puppy and a birds dog is a lot of growing up to dog.

[Gertie]

Thanks Don. I think I'm on the same page. I spoke with a guy who was starting his pup with serious yard training and intro to birds/steady pointing at 14 weeks so I was curious to see if that was pretty common. Just seemed a little young to me. Best of luck to him but I think I'm going to let mine just be a puppy for a while longer and maybe start getting serious at 5-6 months.

[jcbuttry8]

Getting serious and starting birds is two different things. Put that pup on some birds. Get some pigeons and let the pup chase. You can steady a point later but let that pup get a feel as to why he is in the field.

Joe

[brad27]

Getting serious and starting birds is two different things. Put that pup on some birds. Get some pigeons and let the pup chase. You can steady a point later but let that pup get a feel as to why he is in the field.

Joe

+1

[Gertie]

So I'm getting conflicting advice. The pup is bumping wild birds occasionally on our field walks and is doing some chasing and flash pointing when that happens but a trainer told me not to throw pigeons for her because then I would have to break her from chasing. So I should let her chase for a while? When is it time to stop allowing her to chase? Thanks again for the input. I'm definitely new at this and don't want to mess things up.

[birddogger]

So I'm getting conflicting advice. The pup is bumping wild birds occasionally on our field walks and is doing some chasing and flash pointing when that happens but a trainer told me not to throw pigeons for her because then I would have to break her from chasing. So I should let her chase for a while? When is it time to stop allowing her to chase? Thanks again for the input. I'm definitely new at this and don't want to mess things up.

I would agree with the trainer about throwing the pigeons for her to chase. This is alright to do a time or two at first to bring out the excitement over birds but once that is accomplished, it serves no further purpose. It is still good, however, to continue taking her to the field and let her bump and chase wild birds. She should soon learn that she can't catch them and should start to staunch up. I wouldn't start any formal training until she is older. I hope this makes sense and I don't believe the advise is conflicting at all. There is a big difference in throwing birds for her to chase vs. her finding and bumping them. I am of the school of thought that it is never too early to get a pup into birds and bring out that drive and desire.

Charlie

[mxdad777]

When my dog was 10 weeks old, I would put a pigeon in a small wire cage (like you use to transport birds) and set it out in the back yard. I would let my pup loose and let her discover the bird. She would absolutely go crazy trying to get to the bird. I like this method because they can see and smell the bird, but can't actually grab the bird or get a wing in the face. After doing this a few times, I would dizzy up a pigeon slightly and turn them loose in the yard. Once they started walking around a little, I would turn my pup loose and she would run after the bird. Of course the bird would fly off and the dog would chase to the fence and then watch it fly away. After a few times of doing this, she realized she couldn't catch the pigeon and would try to sneak up on them. When she got too close they would fly. It wasn't too long before she started to just point. I'm not a professional trainer by any stretch of the imagination, but this worked well for me and was very easy to do because I could do it in my backyard. I did this about once or twice a week until she was about 6 months old. Once she was gun conditioned I did the same thing out in a field only I used tip ups to put the pigeon in. The difference now was, after she pointed, I would walk around her, flush the bird and shoot it for her. Like I said, I'm no pro, but it worked for me. My pup is now 10 months old and I have been taking her out to a preserve once a week and hunting pheasant and chukar. So far I'm extremely happy with her progress and am having a great time with her. The next big test will be next weekend when we can start hunting wild birds. Although, we don't have many wild birds left around here, you can usually pick up a few on opening weekend. Oh yeah, my dog is a pointing lab.

[Gertie]

Thanks for clearing that up for me. That makes sense and I think I'll probably go ahead and keep taking her out for field walks and try to get my hands on a couple pigeons to familiarize/throw for her a few times before we start formal yard and bird work in a few months. Thanks again.

[DonF]

As far as the pup is concerned there is no difference between letting it chase "bleep" birds, pigeons and wild birds. Chasing is chasing. Keep doing what your doing Gertie.

[birddogger]

The only thing that I would mildly disagree with is that there is a differnce in throwing pigeons for the pup to chase vs. birds flying that she has found and bumped that will teach her to point. Chasing is chasing but I wouldn't do something that is going to encourage chasing. JMO.

Charlie

[RayGubernat]

The only thing that I would mildly disagree with is that there is a differnce in throwing pigeons for the pup to chase vs. birds flying that she has found and bumped that will teach her to point. Chasing is chasing but I wouldn't do something that is going to encourage chasing. JMO.

Charlie

charlie-

A very well respected pro that I know actually does do quite a bit of throwing pigeons at his youngsters. He is a big fan of it with setters. He will take out two youngsters and a big bag of pigeons on a 4 wheeler. They are running around and when they are heading toward him he will underhand a pigeon so that it flies out low. The dogs chase like mad, but since pigeons never land on the ground, they can't catch them. Eventually they give up on that bird and come back around on their own and when the are messing around by the 4 wheeler he lets another one go. The dogs I saw him work were about six to eight months old.

He said that the pigeons teach the dog two valuable lessons in addition to firing them up. They learn that they cannot catch the birds and they learn to keep an eye on him because HE is where the fun is at. I never saw it, but he said that eventually, the dogs would stop, watch the birds fly away and then continue running near the ATV. They ain't too far from being broke when they do that...with absolutely no pressure whatsoever.

RayG

[DonF]

I had never considered that it would make them keep a closer eye on the handler. Great point.

[AzDoggin]

A very well respected pro that I know actually does do quite a bit of throwing pigeons at his youngsters. He is a big fan of it with setters. He will take out two youngsters and a big bag of pigeons on a 4 wheeler. They are running around and when they are heading toward him he will underhand a pigeon so that it flies out low. The dogs chase like mad, but since pigeons never land on the ground, they can't catch them. Eventually they give up on that bird and come back around on their own and when the are messing around by the 4 wheeler he lets another one go. The dogs I saw him work were about six to eight months old.

He said that the pigeons teach the dog two valuable lessons in addition to firing them up. They learn that they cannot catch the birds and they learn to keep an eye on him because HE is where the fun is at. I never saw it, but he said that eventually, the dogs would stop, watch the birds fly away and then continue running near the ATV. They ain't too far from being broke when they do that...with absolutely no pressure whatsoever.

RayG

When my dog was 10 weeks old, I would put a pigeon in a small wire cage (like you use to transport birds) and set it out in the back yard. I would let my pup loose and let her discover the bird. She would absolutely go crazy trying to get to the bird. I like this method because they can see and smell the bird, but can't actually grab the bird or get a wing in the face. After doing this a few times, I would dizzy up a pigeon slightly and turn them loose in the yard. Once they started walking around a little, I would turn my pup loose and she would run after the bird. Of course the bird would fly off and the dog would chase to the fence and then watch it fly away. After a few times of doing this, she realized she couldn't catch the pigeon and would try to sneak up on them. When she got too close they would fly. It wasn't too long before she started to just point. I'm not a professional trainer by any stretch of the imagination, but this worked well for me and was very easy to do because I could do it in my backyard. I did this about once or twice a week until she was about 6 months old. Once she was gun conditioned I did the same thing out in a field only I used tip ups to put the pigeon in. The difference now was, after she pointed, I would walk around her, flush the bird and shoot it for her. Like I said, I'm no pro, but it worked for me. My pup is now 10 months old and I have been taking her out to a preserve once a week and hunting pheasant and chukar. So far I'm extremely happy with her progress and am having a great time with her. The next big test will be next weekend when we can start hunting wild birds. Although, we don't have many wild birds left around here, you can usually pick up a few on opening weekend. Oh yeah, my dog is a pointing lab.

EXCELLENT information you guys. You can't find this kind of thing anywhere but here on GDF.

[kninebirddog]

i put frozen birds in with my puppies when they are 3 4 and 5 weeks old

i will let them chase a quail around when they are 5 plus weeks old....once they catch a bird I will then start them on a check cord maybe once a week or so...other times it is just let them run and explore

all fun little sessions

[birddogger]

The only thing that I would mildly disagree with is that there is a differnce in throwing pigeons for the pup to chase vs. birds flying that she has found and bumped that will teach her to point. Chasing is chasing but I wouldn't do something that is going to encourage chasing. JMO.

Charlie

charlie-

A very well respected pro that I know actually does do quite a bit of throwing pigeons at his youngsters. He is a big fan of it with setters. He will take out two youngsters and a big bag of pigeons on a 4 wheeler. They are running around and when they are heading toward him he will underhand a pigeon so that it flies out low. The dogs chase like mad, but since pigeons never land on the ground, they can't catch them. Eventually they give up on that bird and come back around on their own and when the are messing around by the 4 wheeler he lets another one go. The dogs I saw him work were about six to eight months old.

He said that the pigeons teach the dog two valuable lessons in addition to firing them up. They learn that they cannot catch the birds and they learn to keep an eye on him because HE is where the fun is at. I never saw it, but he said that eventually, the dogs would stop, watch the birds fly away and then continue running near the ATV. They ain't too far from being broke when they do that...with absolutely no pressure whatsoever.

RayG

That makes sense to me...I guess the method is what makes the difference.

Charlie