Gun Dog Forum

I have been following the Perfect Start method to train my now 8-month-old GSP. After taking him through weeks of introduction to birds, planting birds in launchers in the field, and slowly introducing him to gunfire, it all culminated last night into creating a hunting dog. He pointed a pigeon in the launcher in very heavy cover, my wife launched it, I shot it and it fell in the same heavy cover. He had to find it by using his nose (and he marked it pretty good, too) due to the cover being so heavy. He found it after about 30 seconds of searching and brought it back to me. I was elated! This is the first pointer I have trained and to watch all of the basics come together like that in one moment was awesome!

Congrats. Glad to hear that all the little things put together have turned into a hunting dog.

That is awesome. It is always great to see it come together. Keep us informed of the hunt success this year.

Now, it's time to test the launcher theory.
Put a launcher out but without a bird in it and see what happens.
Many (not all) dogs will point an empty launcher even if there
is no bird scent, there is launcher scent and they will point it.
Give it a try and see if that happens or not. If the dog does point
an empty launcher, it's time to go strictly to birds only.

.

Pat yourself on the back. You have accomplish what some people only dream of. I know its hard work, but in the end you have won. Good Luck

Doc E wrote:Now, it's time to test the launcher theory.
Put a launcher out but without a bird in it and see what happens.
Many (not all) dogs will point an empty launcher even if there
is no bird scent, there is launcher scent and they will point it.
Give it a try and see if that happens or not. If the dog does point
an empty launcher, it's time to go strictly to birds only.

.

Since I am new to this allow me to ask a question. Won't there be residual bird scent on the launcher? Especially when the birds have crapped on the material?

Thanks in advance.

Very definitely. It would be unusual for a dog not to point it. if you want to do that go buy a brand new launcher and set it out in the field for a few weeks and then try it. Not sure what you would gain since you have already accomplished what you needed to get done. Congrats!

CoolHandLukeGSP wrote:Since I am new to this allow me to ask a question. Won't there be residual bird scent on the launcher? Especially when the birds have crapped on the material?

Thanks in advance.

Your dog should know the scent that's specific to a live bird, but you can use a brand new (never used) launcher and see if it happens or not.

.

If you think about it, a dog can tell the difference between a live bird or a bird that has recently been shot,by smell,so I see no reason why a dog can not tell the differnce between a bird in a launcher and a liberated bird, that is why In most training programs transition steps are very small, something as small as removing the check cord, can change the way a dog handles it's game, I guess what I'm saying is transitioning to birds on the ground vs birds in a launcher is just a other step in the process

I would bet as long as the dog was not allowed to sight point a launcher in its training,It wouldn't point a unused launcher


Jmo

That first bird is an exciting one! Don't worry - it doesn't get any less exciting as you take out more together Congrats!

I'm really pleased for you....well done.

I very, very seldom use bird launchers , usually I hunt my dogs on wild game and then more wild game until I get what I want. I did this with my very first pointing dog, a Brittany and then I tried , for exhibition purposes, to get her to point either dizzied or caged pigeons or, once or twice, pheasants. She often flash pointed them but then at once moved in .... the dizzied birds got caught and retrieved if they didn't take to wing fast enough and since I didn't have a bird launcher back then, the birds I'd placed in cages got squatted over and peed on ! She was totally contemptuous of any bird with human scent on it ..... I never did get any bird pointing exhibitions out of her !
The difference in her performance between wild birds and caged birds was like night and day.

Bill T.

There will be residual scent left over. Your dog may or may not point it. It may point it for a couple of seconds or may not at all. I would bet if you put a brand new launcher out there he would not point it at all. I think it's difficult for a young dog to distinguish residual scent from live bird scent. Experience is the teacher there.

It's my opinion (and I'm no Pro) that what the launcher really excells at is teaching a dog to stand their birds. Dog moves bird goes bye bye. Dog stands still it continues to get a nose full of what it loves. Transferring that to wild birds will be a new learning process but one that was instilled in the dog with the launcher and shouldn't take long at all. The dog points a covey of quail, hears the whistling, the birds moving around ect ect and the dogs jumps in, flushes the birds and after only a few times of this it remembers that when he stood still he got to get that nose full of scent that was so pleasureable.

I started both of my current EP pups using the perfect start method and it's idiot proof (I'm proof of that) and easy to use and gets results immediately.

I think you are off to a very good start with your pup and this fall you should be able to have some nice hunts with him.