First real point

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BuckeyeSteve
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First real point

Post by BuckeyeSteve » Thu Jul 19, 2018 5:12 am

My Brittany had his first real point a few minutes ago.... He broke it after 10 seconds or so and went around and flushed the bird....but I was happy to see the point. He's 7 months, and I haven't really done much on into'ing him to birds yet.

I moved 100 quail last night from my coup to a flight pen. One or two got away. The quail had come back and was sitting under a trailer near my coup this morning and Rosco smelled it and pointed as we were passing back by on the end of our morning run. After he flushed it, he proceeded to chase...I knew I didn't want him to catch it (8 week old quail with no flight experience isn't going to make it too far) so I called him off. He amazingly listened when I called....but it also worried me to call him off of a chase. Obviously it would have been greatly preferable if the bird could have taught him the lesson....but I figured the damage was greater to risk letting him catch it.

Was I right in calling him in off a chase, or should I have done differently?

The brief point was awesome by the way. I loved it. I know most people on this site have been over thousands of points....but I haven't. I've never hunted with a bird dog in my life. Seeing Rosco freeze up in a statuesque point on that bird was a beautiful sight.

shags
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Re: First real point

Post by shags » Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:21 am

Here's to many more nice points!

With hard flying pigeons I don't call the dog off, but I call them off with quail. If they mind, as Roscoe did, I don't go nuts with praise, but do an "All right, Bud! Let's go now" or something simple. IDK if the dog would think high praise was for the chase or the recall, but then again maybe they need some recognition for obeying my command. At any rate, we go off in the opposite direction of the flush, because in our games, going towards the bird would be delayed chase. YYMV as a hunting dog.

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DonF
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Re: First real point

Post by DonF » Thu Jul 19, 2018 8:20 am

Surprised you could call him off. I doubt it will hurt anything especially since it sounds like you let him get underway first. I had a video years ago on using what then was called the shock collar and taking the chase out of a dog. The guy kept the intensity low and let the chase get underway first, very important. Don't let what happen's get related to the bird. Then he'd start bumping the dog until the dog quit the chase on it's own. Tried it and it works well. I would guess calling the pup off right away might give the same idea, that being he's not supposed to get the bird. Your pup catch's a bird now and then, it's not going to hurt much. Most pup's do catch=one now and then. Go on like nothing happened.

I haven't used game birds on dog's in a lot of years. But a year or so ago I got to thinking about it. I put a few birds, quail, out into a big brush pile with food and water right there. They came back in for a couple weeks then I think something got them. Got to thinking about a brooder house buried in the brush pile and fenced off. My idea was they learn t's home right from the start and come back evenings after they are grown and out. Thing about the birds in the brush pile is they got really wild in a couple weeks and really flew good. No recall pen, hopefully just a home they are used to eating drinking and sleeping in. Still gonna try it one of these days. Birds let themselves in and out and basically just go wild. My only problem right here is I've only got 10 acres to do it on. Years ago, right here, we kept around quail and a small covey got loose and stayed loose. They ran around here for about a month before disappearing. Next door neighbor called them my little chickens. Would be nice to have some really wild game birds around. Squirt and Bodie used to get on those brush pile birds every couple days but couldn't catch them. I have read about guy's with lots of land to train on that have johnny house's out and around they can open by remote control. They take off with the dog's and open them one at a time before they get there. Always sounded like a great idea to me. No idea haw they got the birds back unless they had a trapped recall bird in there all the time or raised the birds in there and it just became the home for them.
I pity the man that has never been loved by a dog!

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Sharon
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Re: First real point

Post by Sharon » Thu Jul 19, 2018 4:34 pm

BuckeyeSteve wrote:My Brittany had his first real point a few minutes ago.... He broke it after 10 seconds or so and went around and flushed the bird....but I was happy to see the point. He's 7 months, and I haven't really done much on into'ing him to birds yet.

I moved 100 quail last night from my coup to a flight pen. One or two got away. The quail had come back and was sitting under a trailer near my coup this morning and Rosco smelled it and pointed as we were passing back by on the end of our morning run. After he flushed it, he proceeded to chase...I knew I didn't want him to catch it (8 week old quail with no flight experience isn't going to make it too far) so I called him off. He amazingly listened when I called....but it also worried me to call him off of a chase. Obviously it would have been greatly preferable if the bird could have taught him the lesson....but I figured the damage was greater to risk letting him catch it.

Was I right in calling him in off a chase, or should I have done differently?

The brief point was awesome by the way. I loved it. I know most people on this site have been over thousands of points....but I haven't. I've never hunted with a bird dog in my life. Seeing Rosco freeze up in a statuesque point on that bird was a beautiful sight.
And 50 years later , it will still be a beautiful sight. You did good Steve. Enjoy.
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Trekmoor
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Re: First real point

Post by Trekmoor » Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:53 am

I prefer not to have a pup that age catch a bird so I would have called the pup off ….. if I could ! Lol !

Bill T.
The older I get, the better I was !

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DonF
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Re: First real point

Post by DonF » Sun Jul 29, 2018 11:21 am

Trekmoor wrote:I prefer not to have a pup that age catch a bird so I would have called the pup off ….. if I could ! Lol !

Bill T.
if, got that! But if he could call the dog off after a step or two he should have been abler to call it off after five of six, unless the bird is then right there! Then the pup raise's it's hand and yells, Mine!
I pity the man that has never been loved by a dog!

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