How do city and suburbia dwellers train your dogs

[bullseyebill]

I have access to purchase quail but only on the weekends and it's a 45min drive to get there. How do those that live in the city or suburbs with limited access to birds train your bird dogs. Especially young dogs.

When I read the posts here and elsewhere, it seems that people are training their dogs daily with birds, birds, birds. I don't have the access to open land and birds daily, thus my question.

Thanks
Cindy

[Greg Jennings]

If you have a way to keep even just a couple of homing pigeons, you're far ahead of no birds at all.

If you can't, then you just have to do conditioning and yardwork during the week and hit the birds on the weekend.

Greg J.

[BigShooter]

Good question .. hard to answer. If you could find a training club in your area they'd be a great resource and may have a solution for you. Pigeons in a park are not ideal but at least keep the dog exposed to and excited about birds.

[bobman]

Bird dog are born knowing how to hunt, the best thing to do is give them good socialization and when you get the chance expose them to wild birds they will figure it out , other than a stray woodcock or three my dogs don't see a game bird from season to season down here.

I go hunting for a few weeks every year to ND and Kansas where they get tons of bird contacts, thats whats important.

[Chocolate Head]

I fit your description to a T. The way I do it is a combination of what was said. I do conditioning and yard work during the week at the house/the park. On weekends or during daylight savings time I'm able to work Lucy on birds. Pigeons were my best solution b/c quail are hard to come by in my area, are at least 45 minutes to get them, are more expensive, don't fly as well, and are much harder to keep alive. Pigeons are cheaper and hardier. I'm fortunate in that I have a pigeon source in my area for $5 per bird. I buy a few and use them until they expire. Clean water and food is a must, but beyond that they are easily cared for. If you want to spend a little more time you get breed homers and they will home back to your loft after they are flushed, but it does require a little more time and care.

Another source of pigeons is to net them at night under bridges. It's really easy and fruitful. All you need is a scoop net, a spot light and a cage to put your catch. Also, if you live in a city there is likely a nuisance bird person in your area that will keep you well stocked.

Feel free to send me a PM if you need more help.

[ezzy333]

Its nice to have birds butmany pups are raised that see very few birds in their first year. From then on though the more you can work with the faster your dog will progress. You just do what you can and it will work out.

Ezzy

[Trekmoor]

I have been in that position all my life - living in towns and training gun dogs. Probably we are different from you in that here Town authorities buy tracts of land to build housing, shops, factories etc. on later. These areas are right on the edges of towns and it is often a few years until they are built on. The farmland goes wild but often the partridge and pheasant these farms once had are still there. It is these areas I hunt and have managed to train some trial winning dogs by doing so. I cannot shoot on them but hunting, general obedience and retrieve practice are all easily done there.
Maybe you have something similar that would work for you ?

Bill T.

[bullseyebill]

Thanks everyone for your comments. They are quite helpful. THis is what I'm trying to do so it helps to know that I'm on the right track.

Cindy

[edondero]

I'm with ya. I live in a condo in a city, this is the furthest place from birddog land I could probably be. It took alot of work, sounds like you're already ahead of me, but I finally made contacts for using someone's land, met new trainers, and located quail for sale for training. Frustrating isn't it. I credit all the nice people in the sport that are willing to help.

[natetnc]

there is an unlimited supply of birds in the city, all you need is a big pole and BIG fishing net. go to pigeon roosting sites grab a couple one night and use a launcher of kick cage for a day of fun.

birds was not my #1 problem living in the city, it was range. i think my dog was less confident out in the woods and stayed closer than it should have for longer than it should have because it was never allowed to get out. we have since worked those issues out. beleive me, exposure to birds is an important piece of the puzzle but so is actually knowing how to hunt them. be sure to sacrifice the 45min drive every once in a while to let your dog hunt.

[DSemple]

Ahhhhhhhh - Roses & Pigeons

[ddshine]

get the basic obedience done then send your dog to a pro for more indepth training if needed.

[Mark Payton]

I have always done my own training, and I no longer live in a suburb, but I have to second the suggestion on a pro...........even a one month introduction to birds and guns would go a long way in getting your dog started. Where I live, wild birds are too scarce and a good intro to birds would greatly expedite the learning curve on them.

And when I did live in a neighborhood, I had the best heeling, best whoaing dogs around! All my dogs would eventually heel off lead and I could jog through the neighborhood streets.

And I had this one route that had four street lights, and I'd give my young dogs one opportunity to retrieve at each light (I did a lot of walking at night during the summer when it was cooler) with a flexi-lead and many of these turned out to be great "natural" retrievers.

I tried homers, but mine insisted on crapping on my neighbors car before going back in. So that obviously didn't work

Mark

[wems2371]

I am a newbie. While I've had dogs and done a lot of obedience training, this is absolutely my first gun dog. When we couldn't find any pigeons/birds for our gsp pup to work with last fall, we were getting anxious and asking ourselves questions. Like we're we behind the curve in introducing her to birds? would that have a negative impact and so forth? She was about 6 months old when we were able to get a few pigeons. It took her about 3 sessions with them to accustom her nose to them, give us a good point, and assure us that we didn't buy a total dud. We are fortunate to have 11 acres of timber, and a few acres of grassland near us. However with our Iowa cold an deep snow cover, you can't find the grass to plant a bird in. So we've been reinforcing and improving on our indoor work. We've been doing a lot of whoa work and a lot of fetch work--from the hand, table, and floor. She is good at fetching and holding, so I mix it up with the retrieving buck, plastic dummies, and a pheasant dummy. If you don't have access to a real bird to put in your freezer, you might try purchasing a pheasant pelt. I recently purchased a couple off of Ebay (complete with wings, head & tail) and wrapped them around my 2" dummy. It was the next best thing to having a real bird. I preface that by saying--start with the basics and don't get creative until your dog has those down. We also take advantage of our hallway and use it for retrieving work, whoaing her at one end and placing the retreiving item at the other end. We send her down with the fetch command and call her back. It's a great controlled environment for starting off leash fetch recalls. Be creative (again, when your dog's ready). My dog only talks gibberish, but I think she loves it when I mix it up. Today I placed a retrieving buck on my living room floor, heeled Roxi in on leash up to the buck, had her fetch off the floor in one smooth motion, and continue heeling for a couple more rounds--with a whoa thrown in here and there. Roxi's just about 8 months old, and she absolutely loves our training sessions. I cannot keep her off the whoa table--no ramps necessary. I know the bird field is important, as we have a NA test coming up and are anxious to get back out there, but in my newbie opinion--it's going to come together a lot quicker for my dog with the groundwork instilled in her. Just some ideas and good luck. Denise (Countryside Red Hot Roxi)