Intro young pup to pigeons

[ROTTnBRITT]

I was wondering if anyone has any good techniques for using pigeons with a young pup. I have seen a lot with quail, where they take a couple out into some cover and then bring the pup into find them. Naturally the quail will stay on the ground until the pup moves in on them. Will a dizzy pigeon work the same way?

I want to take the pup out for fun walks and have a few birds planted, to get him to start hunting and using his nose.

[rinker]

I use a pigeon pole for the first introduction, but the dog would need to be on a check cord. I use launchers after that.

[duckn66]

I used the same method they use on the perfect start video. Put the pup on a check cord and fly a few pigeons off in front of it and if he gives some chase thats good. And you can plant a few pigeons in front of him after that with a helper to flush when/if he tries to rush in and grab it.

I wouldn't be letting the pup off the check cord to hunt on its own just yet. You need to make sure that the pup will hold a point until you can go in and flush the bird. If the pup chases the bird after you flush it thats fine but you don't want the pup catching a dizzied or sleeping bird.

Absolute worse thing you want to do is have your pup on a walk through a planted field of pigeons and have it catch one. That will create more problems than what you want or need right now.

I'm far from an expert and am really just learning all this pointing dog stuff coming from retrievers.

[DonF]

Take the pup out for walks where there are no planted birds. It will chase song birds, game birds ect. If you want to make everything a set up, make it as natural as you can. It's called happy timing and great for introducing the pup to birds, cover and independence all at the same time.

[ezzy333]

I used the same method they use on the perfect start video. Put the pup on a check cord and fly a few pigeons off in front of it and if he gives some chase thats good. And you can plant a few pigeons in front of him after that with a helper to flush when/if he tries to rush in and grab it.

I wouldn't be letting the pup off the check cord to hunt on its own just yet. You need to make sure that the pup will hold a point until you can go in and flush the bird. If the pup chases the bird after you flush it thats fine but you don't want the pup catching a dizzied or sleeping bird.

Absolute worse thing you want to do is have your pup on a walk through a planted field of pigeons and have it catch one. That will create more problems than what you want or need right now.

I'm far from an expert and am really just learning all this pointing dog stuff coming from retrievers.

I have no problem with young pups catching a bird and carrying it around or whatever it wants to do with a bird when introing.

Ezzy

[DoubleBarrel GunDogs]

Check out this website for some good information. www.huntsmith.com Scroll down to articles: Pigeons and scent.

[zigzag]

I agree that a young pup 16weeks to 5 months old should catch a few birds. I'm not a trainer or by any means an expert, but I let my dog catch a few week flying planted Coturnix Quail AKA Japanese. In the field we used for training. He chased them down cought the bird carried it as long as he wanted. I truly think I have a better retriever because of those 3 or 4 birds he got to chase down and carry at 16-18 weeks. I would not recomend pigeons as they may be to big for the pup and could make a problem for you if the pup got clawed up wing slapped. After this intial plant chase catch. Then it's pigeons in launchers till you got a steady point to flush.