Homing pigeons and the reuse of such

[scattergun]

I have a 7 month old DL and a 3 1/2 month old DD. SO FAR, when they go down on point they are DOWN, period. They are not steady to wing and shot but feel that will come soon with a little help. I cannot bring myself to not shoot a bird that they have held until I flush it and let it fly off. I feel they deserve to get the bird if they are steady and they both bring birds to me when allowed to retreive. However, I will be running out of birds soon if this continues.

Opinions will be appreciated.

Thanks

[JimB]

when training , I do not shoot every bird that the dogs point. I guess that I shoot every 4th or so pointed bird. I don't really want the dog to think that every point ends in a retrieve,...sometimes people miss, and the dog must remain steady .
I also keep two different coops,....one for homers, and one for "shooters"

[phillipsgsp]

I do the same thing, one loft for homers and one loft for shooters. Be carful about shooting a lot of birds for the dog as stated not every bird gets shot when hunting(hen pheasant,No shot due to safty or cover). I have also seen dogs that start to mouth and rough a pigeon up on the retreive after they have be on a bunch of them. I do not know what it is but I have seen it more than two or three times. Those same dogs would then turn around and fetch a shot quail or chuckar just fine and not hard mouth it. Just somthing to be aware of. I do not know if anyone else has had this problem, but I went though it about two yrs back when I did almost all my training with pigeons and not game birds.


Chad

[ezzy333]

Remember as far as the dog knows the pigeon is a game bird since all that designates is what we normally hunt.

Ezzy

[snips]

I generally do not shoot any birds over pups. I let them have fun, find and chase a few. When they are hunting good, pointing good and independent I will take them off birds for awhile (prevent too many bad habits) and let them grow up some before Whoa training and steadying them up.

[Hotpepper]

The bird and getting it is for you

I use the approach that the point and find are the reward for the dog, way too many training mistakes because we feel the bird is going to get away.

If you use the point and find as a reward, you will have a better dog.

Pepper