Pigeon's for training

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DonF
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Pigeon's for training

Post by DonF » Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:44 am

I have been using them since day one because I could catch them for free. Early on I pretty much shot every bird I planted, I was clueless how to use them. Oh ank I do do pointing dog's. The big thing a lot of people call a drawback is turning the dog over to game bird's at some, I don'y worry about that any more. You want to get the dog onto game birds simply run him on wild game birds! You do you job and it may take two piece's of of work for the dog to work the birds right. Reason is if you use your pigeon's right, make them act like game bird's, the dog understand's what it take's to hold any bird down. There have been a few time's over the year's I have bought game birds to turn the dog's over on but at some point I got to thinking that was senseless. I made the pigeons act like game birds and the dog's never consider them a training bird. They go out into the field and any game bird is nothing more than a game bird. first time or two on a game bird and they find out the rule's ate the same for all bird's. I first noticed that with some GSP pup's I had years ago. I'd be out working with the pup's and now and then they would point a game bird and handle it very well up to their point in training, no switch over required! Stop and thing about it and it's because you did not turn a pigeon into a training aide but rather a good reputation of a game bird. The wild birds when your done will simply reinforce what the dog already know's! Now I have never tried that without using remote traps, the reason I can control the bird and the dog simply learns from it's mistake's.

Think of it this way, what difference does it make if the game bird is wild or pen raised? One one difference is the pen raised bird can teach bad habit's. The have a tendacity not to fly very far and the run around on the ground when they should be flying. You simply can't make a pen raised game bird act much like a wild bird!
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polmaise
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Re: Pigeon's for training

Post by polmaise » Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:50 am

DonF wrote:I have been using them since day one because I could catch them for free. Early on I pretty much shot every bird I planted,
I use them for all breeds and have always.
The best training is when I don't shoot them .

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ezzy333
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Re: Pigeon's for training

Post by ezzy333 » Tue Oct 10, 2017 3:12 pm

polmaise wrote:
DonF wrote:I have been using them since day one because I could catch them for free. Early on I pretty much shot every bird I planted,
I use them for all breeds and have always.
The best training is when I don't shoot them .
I agree.
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Shellottome
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Pigeon's for training

Post by Shellottome » Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:11 pm

I use live pigeon all the time. I let mine fly daily and leave the trap door open. They act wild it seems from doing it this way. Raising pigeon is much cheaper than buying them all the time also.


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gundogguy
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Re: Pigeon's for training

Post by gundogguy » Thu Oct 12, 2017 4:34 am

Pigeons, used them for all breeds. For me the best training was when they are shot and the dog has to develop a no-handle mark and proper delivery.
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CDN_Cocker
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Re: Pigeon's for training

Post by CDN_Cocker » Thu Oct 12, 2017 7:22 am

I enjoy training the pigeons as much as training the dog
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oldbeek
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Re: Pigeon's for training

Post by oldbeek » Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:22 pm

Worked with a trainer that had traps but mostly rocked birds. Pups would stick their face right in the bush. He would start pups by letting them catch a pigeon. Then break them of busting in on rocked , sleeping pigeons.??? This may be what you have to do when the dog has no natural prey/pointing drive. That dog I would not even train. I only use traps and if the dog starts to creep the bird is launched. I use perfect start perfect finish. Dogs never get to catch a bird. Love keeping pigeons. They are my buddies. I only train my dogs and start with good hunting lines.

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ezzy333
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Re: Pigeon's for training

Post by ezzy333 » Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:38 pm

oldbeek wrote:Worked with a trainer that had traps but mostly rocked birds. Pups would stick their face right in the bush. He would start pups by letting them catch a pigeon. Then break them of busting in on rocked , sleeping pigeons.??? This may be what you have to do when the dog has no natural prey/pointing drive. That dog I would not even train. I only use traps and if the dog starts to creep the bird is launched. I use perfect start perfect finish. Dogs never get to catch a bird. Love keeping pigeons. They are my buddies. I only train my dogs and start with good hunting lines.
That is a method of training that has been used long before we had launchers and has little to do with prey drive other than introducing a bird to a pup. It is a method that has worked very well for a long time and on many dogs that went on to successful careers in every venue.

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