dog is not staunch on stocked birds

[oldbeek]

Most of you have seen my posts before with this dog. She is a bird finding fool. She is staunch on wild birds. Points and retrieves perfectly. In NSTRA competition she only gets marginal scores for her pointing. Flagging, looking back to see if I am coming ect. My latest plan is to not train her for 30 days. She only gets to go roading. Do you think this will make her more eager and point stocked Bobs with more style?

[ruffbritt4]

Maybe she is bored of the game, it has become routine for her and she knows that the bird is just gonna sit there. Don't know how you train her but maybe shoot a few. I know dogs get bored of pigeons too because it is repetitive and easy for them, they know the game. Good luck

[Sharon]

Most of you have seen my posts before with this dog. She is a bird finding fool. She is staunch on wild birds. Points and retrieves perfectly. In NSTRA competition she only gets marginal scores for her pointing. Flagging, looking back to see if I am coming ect. My latest plan is to not train her for 30 days. She only gets to go roading. Do you think this will make her more eager and point stocked Bobs with more style?

Use some hard flying pigeons that take off the moment the dog moves.


edited due to a word left out.

[polmaise]

Maybe she has become bored of the routine rather than the game.
Unpredictable stocked game have scent trails if they are free running ,game that is 'stocked' then planted has no residual scent other than who planted it. Pretty Routine.

[AAA Gundogs]

Most of you have seen my posts before with this dog. She is a bird finding fool. She is staunch on wild birds. Points and retrieves perfectly. In NSTRA competition she only gets marginal scores for her pointing. Flagging, looking back to see if I am coming ect. My latest plan is to not train her for 30 days. She only gets to go roading. Do you think this will make her more eager and point stocked Bobs with more style?

The flagging and loss of focus are BAD habits, that are tough to correct, but I think the answer is in more birds and your intervention, while on to point, to stop the flagging/head turning by whoa and styling.

[gonehuntin']

Sounds like boredom to me as well so make them exciting by using electronic trap's. At some locations put one trap, at other's two or three. Watch her when she points. If she turns her head to look at you, pop a bird. If she flag's, pop a bird. If she points perfectly, flush one bird, then the next, then the next. Occasionally pop all three. Never let her track YOU to the bird. Always come in crosswind on the bird and from a direction where she can't cross your tracks. Make it as natural as posssile and as much fun as possible.

[oldbeek]

In Nstra the birds are just dropped from a high speed motorcycle rider. No back tracking there. I plant from a quad and do use several elect. traps and launch as soon as she hits scent if she does not point. She gets lots of birds shot for her. I think I was over training so thought just stop all training for a while and she will get excited over any kind of bird encounter.

[shags]

When you train, stay quiet. Talking, cautioning, whoaing, all result in head slinging and flagging in a dog prone to them. Don't make her stand there too long - she already knows what she's supposed to do, so get it done and move on. Watch your own body language when you go to flush, some dogs get nerved up if you creep up on their birds, while others will if you barge in like The Hulk.

If I were you I would take a little break from entering the trials until you get the dog straightened out. When she messes up you can't correct her, and that sets all your training progress back. Maybe take her along and stake her out, while you volunteer to plant birds or something.

Patience! Good luck to you. Your dog sounds like she has a lot of potential and once you have her right you'll be in the ribbons

[gonehuntin']

They track atv;s and motorcycles same as human tracks.

[shags]

They track atv;s and motorcycles same as human tracks.

The easy way around that is to not drive out, drop birds, and head back in. Take a spin or two around the training area, being sure to stop and idle in several spots, as if you were putting out birds. Or, depending how you're set up and if you're using pen raised quail, fly the birds out and watch where they land.

[ezzy333]

They track atv;s and motorcycles same as human tracks.

The easy way around that is to not drive out, drop birds, and head back in. Take a spin or two around the training area, being sure to stop and idle in several spots, as if you were putting out birds. Or, depending how you're set up and if you're using pen raised quail, fly the birds out and watch where they land.

I never had a problem with a dog following the ATV as I always made sure the field was well covered with fresh tracks so it never started.

[cjhills]

It seems like something in your personality or the dogs personality is driving this very talented dog crazy. Maybe you should put him with somebody whom you trust for a while to get a different point of view. I would for sure skip the NSTRA for a while. once they figure out how to cheat in a certain situation it can be very difficult to stop..........Cj

[gonehuntin']

They track atv;s and motorcycles same as human tracks.

The easy way around that is to not drive out, drop birds, and head back in. Take a spin or two around the training area, being sure to stop and idle in several spots, as if you were putting out birds. Or, depending how you're set up and if you're using pen raised quail, fly the birds out and watch where they land.

+1.

[oldbeek]

started popping the launcher as soon as she gets scent. She now points further away and is more intense. Now almost to far away. Have to tap her to move up.

[skunk]

started popping the launcher as soon as she gets scent. She now points further away and is more intense. Now almost to far away. Have to tap her to move up.

This is good to hear. I never had a flagging problem with my pup but he's 2 now and I think getting used to the game... He knows the quail we plant can't escape and during our last two training sessions either doesn't point well or when he does, just stands there and wags his tail looking toward me. A month ago before we started doing much training, his points we hard and intense.

My plan before I read this was to forgo the quail and use good flying pigeons only. As soon as he gets scent, up goes the bird. I figured a bit of that should get him more serious and it seems you've found that as well.

Thanks for following up on this.