Gun Dog Forum

what kind of birds is the best to do so? Wild? Pigeons? How to go about indroducing my pup to birds? Do I plant them and let her find them?

Sorry no one has answered yet, i use pigeons to introduce pups to birds let it play with a locked wing pigeon till the pup is really excited and bold then let it chase and play with a clipped wing pigeon that can't fly far so it can flap around and if the pup asked scared of the the flapping wings go back to the locked wing bird for a while then go back to the clipped wing bird this is all right out of George hickoxes dvd's

Well its a good thing I just got that dvd in the mail. After that how do get them to get quai in such if they used to pigeons? Or is that a dumb question, I'm about as green as it gets...

jer_allen27 wrote:Well its a good thing I just got that dvd in the mail. After that how do get them to get quai in such if they used to pigeons? Or is that a dumb question, I'm about as green as it gets...

Hey jer us humans are "bird dumb" but the dogs are smart as heck. He'll quickly figure out the bird he's after. You have to remember that they have this whole world of information out there (scent) that we can't detect. I rarely hear about a dog having problems transitioning from pigeons to quail or phez or whatever. Also since the dogs always need refreshers, you'll be switching back and forth between pigeons and wild birds throughout his life if you hunt him and keep his training up to speed.

Pigeons can be easily trapped and or purchased cheap as well as housed. The more birds and hunting scenario's you expose your dog to the wiser it will be when you take it out to hunt game birds. Training on wild birds is great but the number of experinces your dog will have will be far less than if you trap or buy birds and plant them for the dog. Also the time it takes to train the dog will be far greater. To work the dog on steady to wing and shot and holding point or pointing at all is much more difficult due to the fact that you have no control over the release of the bird. Pretty much working the dog on wild birds only, you end up letting the dog figure it out for himself and rely on the instinct and intelligence level of the dog to train itself. It can be and has been done with good success depending on the individual dog.
If you train and tune the dog up on pigeons it will be quick to recognize game bird scent with a very short learning curve. Buying a couple phez and quail to introduce the dog to the scent before you go hunt them will be helpful.

I use a variety of birds for training pigeons first than whatever i can get cheaper weather it be quail phez or chuckar and have never had any problem transitioning from 1 to the next like AZ said they'll figure out which is the target bird its truly amazing how smart they are, if you can the best thing to do would work them on wild birds but not all of us have the chance so make sure you plant the birds in likely looking cover. and most important have fun and keep your cool at all times!

Dogs smell birds and point. They don't decide what is a game bird or what isn't. They learn that from you when they figure out what it is you are shooting. I have never had a problem with a dog only pointing one kind of bird. Pups will many times point the first birde they encounter no matter what it is or if they have been pointing something else for you. They do get better with experience at determining what you are lookin gfor and what is a waste of time.

Ezzy