Bird hunting, dove retreiving

ROTTnBRITT · Post by **ROTTnBRITT** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 7:38 am

I was wondering if anyone had any advise on taking my britt dove hunting. He is 13 mo. haven't hunted over him yet, only yard work and planted birds. Should I have him steady to wing and shot, before I take him out to retrieve doves? My thoughts are it just might confuse him. He not finding the bird, just waiting for it to hit the ground.
There are lots of doves around and thought it would be fun for retreiving work.

jimbo&rooster · Post by **jimbo&rooster** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 9:50 am

I can not tell you much from experience since most of my dove hnting has been over my labs, but every one that I have talked to has told me that my GSP should be reliably finding and pointing birds before I do any "retriever"type work ie, dove and duck hunting with him.
JIm

BigShooter · Post by **BigShooter** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 10:10 am

As you probably already know some dogs do not like the taste of certain kinds of birds in their mouth especially without the excitement of the locating & pointing or flushing portion of a typical hunt. With a young dog if they don't seem too excited about retrieving it may be just the taste of that particular bird in their mouth.

Fish 4-5 · Post by **Fish 4-5** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:03 pm

I plan on taking my 9 month old GSP dove hunting next month. All I want is for him to locate and retrieve dead birds. We have been working on retrieving bumpers and that is going well but this weekend I shot a few pegions out of a barn and tried to get him to retrieve them and that didn't go well. Somehow I need to get him bringing back instead of just nibbling at it after he finds it. I'm sure he is trainable but its the trainer (me) that has the problem getting the message across. If he would bring back a dove like a bumper I would ask no more of him.

jimbo&rooster · Post by **jimbo&rooster** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:51 pm

Fish 4-5 wrote:I plan on taking my 9 month old GSP dove hunting next month. All I want is for him to locate and retrieve dead birds. We have been working on retrieving bumpers and that is going well but this weekend I shot a few pegions out of a barn and tried to get him to retrieve them and that didn't go well. Somehow I need to get him bringing back instead of just nibbling at it after he finds it. I'm sure he is trainable but its the trainer (me) that has the problem getting the message across. If he would bring back a dove like a bumper I would ask no more of him.

If the dog will pick the bird up and is willing to carry it then you can always try just simply walking away and let the pup follow, the reward to pup is just being able to hold the bird, dont be in a hurry to snatch the bird from the pup. you can also coax pup to you with a check cord while praising the pup for doing such a good job. by coax i dont mean drag pup in like a marlin.... just kind of nag at pup with little tugs and when pup starts ur way on its own let it come, when it balks and starts goofing off nag a little more. this is what I have been doing with my GSP pup with more or less good results.
Jim

brentonlwin · Post by **brentonlwin** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:56 pm

I was in the same boat last September. I had a 9 mo old pup that had been on plenty of planted birds and was retreiveing nicely but I was a little worried about confusing her on doves. Well I took her anyway and she showed no interest whatsoever and this was a pup with all the bird drive you could ever ask for. She just didn't get it and didn't want the doves. I tried to get her to fetch one like I had done with quail but she wouldn't touch it...she acted like it was poison. I was a little worried about that but when I took her in November and put her on real wild phez and quail she performed like a champ.

So what I'm saying is, try it if you like and maybe your pup will take to it nicely, they are all different. But, if the pup does like mine then don't worry about. Concentrate on real bird hunting and then after she is doing that like a pro you can come back to doves if you want. JMO.

Brent

ROTTnBRITT · Post by **ROTTnBRITT** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 8:51 am

Well I dont think he will have a problem with taste. He will pick up anything dead. That cat is always bring home dead stuff. He has carried around mice, weasle, doves, squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits. Wish that cat would leave just leave em' where he caught them.

Thank you all for you input.

nooblet · Post by **nooblet** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 9:35 am

One thing to consider is what you are teaching your dog. While you are teaching steadiness, you are teaching the dog to stay still. Retrieve training is exactly the opposite, now you are teaching the dog it can go. They are two different ideas to the dog alltogether. The risk you run, assuming your training is coming along, is confusing the dog. "Stop now boss or go?" "So can I go on the shot now boss or was that just for those little gray bird that were flying?"

Just my two cents.

Fish 4-5 · Post by **Fish 4-5** » Wed Aug 04, 2010 5:49 am

It's difficult for me to make sure I'm sending the right signals and not confusing him. We will work hard with th check cord and hopefully the light will go on. He loves to find the bird and after that he just nibbles at the feathers. Unfortunatly, here in Va we have no wild "classic" birds to hunt. The grouse population is all but dissapeered, I could walk all day in the mountains and maybe jump one grouse.Essentually dove is all we have wild. So my goal is to get him to find and retrieve after the shot, no pointing or backing skills needed.

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