My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post Reply
User avatar
NEhomer
Rank: 4X Champion
Posts: 675
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 5:58 pm
Location: Western, MA

My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post by NEhomer » Fri Mar 27, 2015 7:44 am

Oh man you guys....get this one.

My setter's not quite four months yet so per the advice of most of you experienced trainers, I've just been focusing on bonding with him and exposing him to people, other dogs and new places. I've worked on getting him to come with no consequence for not obeying. That's working very well as his instances of refusal are diminishing steadily. We go for lots of walks on my very rural property. One slightly nagging concern has been his range. He won't go out further than about 50 feet before he checks on me and returns. Now having had a Britt that would regularly take off into the next County, I haven't been too alarmed because here in Western MA, we can only simulate true pheasant hunting as we have no wild birds. I hunt on my stocked gun club. It's a mix of woods, power lines and small meadows. There are other hunting groups sometimes no more than a couple of hundred yards away so a close working dog is a blessing for the most part. I'm hoping that as he matures and takes an interest in birds he'll be more willing to go exploring a greater distance. Esp when I get to training him this summer with pigeons. I have avoided using a wing on a string or any of that stuff. He has an excellent pedigree and I'm not too worried about his hunting interest....I'm sure it will develop.

Ok, so yesterday, we're returning to the house from a walk when what do you suppose I see at the edge of the yard? Cripes, there's a woodcock strutting along the ground on an area that's still a mix of snow and melted areas. If I walk toward a particular direction, Whip will advance in front of me some distance but I cannot yet send him out. So I'd LOVE to have him see and bump it, point it, whatever but how cool to have a wild bird so close. Well if I advance toward the bird to get Whip going in that direction, I'll risk spooking it but my clingy little guy cannot read what my excitement means! Double cripes, so while the bird is slowly strutting along I have to wait to get the pup going in the right direction which he finally does but alas, while he's running in the general direction, the bird flushes and flies about 50 yards....Whip never saw any of it :x

I brought him off in that direction and we did catch up to the bird still walking but now it's in the woods and the snow is still over a foot deep. We never caught up to it and it disappeared without Whip having the slightest knowledge of it. Oh well.

As I said, I hope that I can open his range a tad when we begin formal training but I do want a close-working dog for the stocked birds. I'm just concerned about when I chase grouse and woodcock. Some of you guys out in the big country would probably pass this little guy off already.

So just a story I thought I'd share....so close but no dice!

nevermind
Rank: Senior Hunter
Posts: 172
Joined: Mon Jun 23, 2014 9:02 am

Re: My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post by nevermind » Fri Mar 27, 2015 8:25 am

I hunt big country, but I wouldn't try to evaluate a hunting dog that not 4mos old yet. Get back to us in about a year on how he's doing...sounds like a very workable pup.

Runningdog
Rank: Senior Hunter
Posts: 103
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2011 5:22 pm
Location: N.E.Ohio

Re: My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post by Runningdog » Fri Mar 27, 2015 8:25 am

Young, young, young... enjoy enjoy enjoy... :D

User avatar
Gordon Guy
Rank: 4X Champion
Posts: 632
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:07 pm
Location: Boise Idaho

Re: My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post by Gordon Guy » Fri Mar 27, 2015 8:30 am

It sounds like you're having fun with him. He's only 4 months,right? I wouldn't worry to much about his range at this age as it sounds about right for a 4 month old. You may have had a precocious Brit, but Setters are a little different. Keep it fun. I've heard that the returning woodcock are good to run bird
dogs on. Looking forward to hearing about his developement.

User avatar
NEhomer
Rank: 4X Champion
Posts: 675
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 5:58 pm
Location: Western, MA

Re: My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post by NEhomer » Fri Mar 27, 2015 9:04 am

Thanks guys. He's an awesome little pup and I couldn't be more pleased with him. Thanks for the reassurance that he'll likely range out a bit more once he knows what we're up to.

setterpoint
Rank: 2X Champion
Posts: 410
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2014 7:10 pm
Location: jellico tn

Re: My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post by setterpoint » Fri Mar 27, 2015 10:15 am

the pup will start ranging out as pup gets older don't worry about that. just keep on doing what your doing

User avatar
Sharon
GDF Junkie
Posts: 9111
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 4:46 pm
Location: Ontario,Canada

Re: My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post by Sharon » Fri Mar 27, 2015 12:37 pm

LOL Great to hear how excited you are about your pup. There will be many more birds for him to enjoy. :) Enjoyed your post.

User avatar
NEhomer
Rank: 4X Champion
Posts: 675
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2015 5:58 pm
Location: Western, MA

Re: My Setter's First Woodcock....NOT!

Post by NEhomer » Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:10 am

Ha, thanks Sharon.

So we headed out back for a walk yesterday and about 50 yards out along the woods line a grouse flushed off to our right about 50 feet away. I heard it before I saw it....straight away flush....about as easy as a grouse shot could be. The entire event was of course, unbeknownst to you-know-who who this time was running out ahead.

Natural training with wild birds? 'O'le homer and Whip are batting 0 for 2!

We need a facepalm smiley on this board.

Post Reply