my dogs first point , and a question.

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TheLukai1100
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my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by TheLukai1100 » Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:01 pm

After a month or so of contemplating, I finally got my dog on a bird!
Image

He walked right by the quail that was about 10 feet away. I was a little discouraged, but out of nowhere something clicks in his brain and he gets real "birdy"" as his nose and his tail are going about 100 mph, he freezes to a point. so I flushed it for him and took him for a quick walk as my friend reset the quail (it was on a string attached to a tent stake).
So I come back through and immediately the dog got "birdy" and pointed.

But now I have a question, Since I hesitated getting him on a bird, and the season starts in about a week. would It be a bad idea to train him steady to wing and shot in the spring?
also what could I do to train him that while I'm hunting?

Neil
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by Neil » Mon Sep 23, 2013 8:49 am

Not a bad idea to hunt him while you continue to work on steady. Get him whoa trained and collar conditioned.

Tethered, recently handled birds are hard for any dog to work, more so with the young inexperienced dog.

dsmtsi
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by dsmtsi » Mon Sep 23, 2013 9:04 am

How old is he?

I'm letting my pup hunt this year but she will only be 6 months old on opener. She's steady to flush with launchers so we are going huning untill she is a bit older. There are others here that can answer your question better but I'm sure they will want to know how old the pup is.

TheLukai1100
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by TheLukai1100 » Mon Sep 23, 2013 5:40 pm

dsmtsi wrote:How old is he?

I'm letting my pup hunt this year but she will only be 6 months old on opener. She's steady to flush with launchers so we are going huning untill she is a bit older. There are others here that can answer your question better but I'm sure they will want to know how old the pup is.
He just turned 5 months old.

dsmtsi
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by dsmtsi » Mon Sep 23, 2013 8:17 pm

If he's collar conditioned to recall I say hunt and have fun. To give you and idea mine is collar conditioned to recall, pointing, and has a natural retrieve. I'm taking her hunting and we will work on whoa during season and ff after the season is over along with steady to fall. I'm far from a pro just what the trainer I'm working with is thinking, every dog is different.

BellaSpinone
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by BellaSpinone » Tue Sep 24, 2013 7:46 am

As long as it is wild and not pen raised birds especially quail.

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Ruffshooter
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by Ruffshooter » Tue Sep 24, 2013 7:55 am

There is not time to get him steady and at that age I would not worry about it.
If you do not want to hunt him start a real training program. Myself, I like the dog to get some lessons from the wild ones. Then do my program.


Put a bell on him.
Put a check cord on him and have no knots. Good stiff cord.
Have a good recall.
Make sure you have gun introduced the baby puppy.

Go hunt him let him learn from the wild ones. Then do the work.

IMO

TheLukai1100
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by TheLukai1100 » Tue Sep 24, 2013 9:07 am

Ruffshooter wrote:There is not time to get him steady and at that age I would not worry about it.
If you do not want to hunt him start a real training program. Myself, I like the dog to get some lessons from the wild ones. Then do my program.


Put a bell on him.
Put a check cord on him and have no knots. Good stiff cord.
Have a good recall.
Make sure you have gun introduced the baby puppy.

Go hunt him let him learn from the wild ones. Then do the work.

IMO
Thanks for Your input
just bought the bell
Hes very comfortable with guns
and hes 100% with the recall,and has been since about a week after I got him (trained him quick on recall so I could run him in the woods without a check cord).
As long as it is wild and not pen raised birds especially quail.
It was a pen raised quail he pointed, they are very flighty and scared of people.

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will-kelly
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by will-kelly » Tue Sep 24, 2013 12:36 pm

Take the dog hunting. Just make sure you go with the right expectations.

In my opinion the pen raised wild bird argument is over played. Many people have fantastic dogs with all kinds of titles and the dog has never seen a wild bird in their life. Catching a bird isn't the problem it's what you do once the dog has caught it. What you really don't want is the behavior that the dog has before it even catches the bird.

At this age everything is new. Don't expect him to continue to listen as well once he gets more birdy. There is a lot that goes on in a dog fom 6 to 12 months.

The mistakes that I think people make is they begin to hunt for themselves and forget they are training a dog. An example I have seen is that a pup points and then gets pressured. The shooter moves in to quickly or to slowly. Dog breaks on the bird. Adrenaline is pumping for the shooter and the dog and bang down goes the bird. It's a great feeling. Next bird dog says last time when this guy got next to me I jumped at the bird and he shot it. Let's do it again. You get the point. You're building a response that will be hard to break as the dog gets older.

The gun needs to be the reward for pointing not the bird. Make sure the dog does not break on the bird but on the gun. If you can do this you will have a lot less problems in later training. Steady to flush becomes much easier.

You said the dog just got it's first bird but he is really comfortable around guns. How is this possible? Proper gun introduction should be birds first then guns. Be very careful because right now because unless I am reading it wrong the dog does not have the correct progression in his mind. Me I hunt, I point, he goes in and flushes, that thing goes bang & now I go get the bird.

Good luck.

TheLukai1100
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Re: my dogs first point , and a question.

Post by TheLukai1100 » Tue Sep 24, 2013 5:49 pm

will-kelly wrote: The gun needs to be the reward for pointing not the bird. Make sure the dog does not break on the bird but on the gun. If you can do this you will have a lot less problems in later training. Steady to flush becomes much easier.

You said the dog just got it's first bird but he is really comfortable around guns. How is this possible? Proper gun introduction should be birds first then guns. Be very careful because right now because unless I am reading it wrong the dog does not have the correct progression in his mind. Me I hunt, I point, he goes in and flushes, that thing goes bang & now I go get the bird.

Good luck.
I introduced the gun the way my breeder told me to, start off 100 feet away with a .22 while hes eating and move in closer and increase the sound as he gets more comfortable. so that's how I did it.
the breeder said to keep him distracted, but the book I was reading said to shoot as you feed him.

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