? re Off-season Walks

[mtlhdr]

Prior to upland bird breeding season I plan intermixing training sessions with romps in wild quail country. The pup is now pointing and holding decently, so what do I do when/if he points wild quail? When he points tweeties and other non-combatants, I've just walked on and let him work through it. Do I just let him point as long as he can stand, then bump and chase? Do I try and walk in and flush? Do I reward the pup in any way?

[Sharon]

I think you have to follow through with your training method or you are giving double messages; the dog doesn't know it is recess.
Lucky guy. We can have an hour hard run here and never see a bird.

[reba]

NO TWEETY BIRDS...................................

I hunt with a guy that thought it was fun to let his dog chase and bark at Tweety Birds. Guess what happened when he went hunting!

[Winchey]

On the quail try to flush, and shoot a blank when the bird goes up.

Sharon are you saying there are no birds left in southern Ontario?

[brad27]

On the quail try to flush, and shoot a blank when the bird goes up.

Here in California you can't run dogs on birds out of season. OP, if you run your dog where there are wild birds, don't bring the blank pistol. Pretty hard to convince a DFG officer you weren't allowing your dog to pursue game with a blank pistol in your hand.

[Winchey]

That sucks. Take a handgun and say you are scared of coyotes lol.

[mtlhdr]

Here in California you can't run dogs on birds out of season.

Thanks Brad. Looks like I need to brush up on the Fish and Game Code. That should be some fun reading...

[Sharon]

On the quail try to flush, and shoot a blank when the bird goes up.

Sharon are you saying there are no birds left in southern Ontario?

You can find ruffed grouse if you go more North. Woodcock appear for a couple weeks. That's it
( All of SW ONT. is very developed and farmers are selling their land at a fast rate.)

[Sharon]

[quote="reba"]NO TWEETY BIRDS...................................

The OP said it was wild quail.

[Winchey]

What about Kingston area?

[LincolnAlexander]

Southern Ontario is definitely not very good bird wise, but we go Grouse hunting and Woodcock hunting within 30 minutes or so of where we live (London), and there are a couple small-ish Pheasant release programs within an hour of us, so our dogs see quite a few birds each year.

[QuillGordon]

Go in and flush, use a toy cap gun if you can't use a blank pistol. I personally wouldn't allow the hound to chase unless lack of desire is a issue