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Retrieving pigeons!


Eklind
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I have a golden retriever who is two years old. She love to retrieve ducks and geese both on land and in water. The biggest issue is with pigeons. She picks them up and carry them but then she seems to be frustrated about all the feathers and she spit it out and starts to pick of the feathers. She has no problems with wet pigeons who has been frozen. Can you guys give me some tips of training with pigeons? Best regards/Carl

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Try not to put her on wood pigeon for now if it worries her. Their feathers are much looser and come out easier. If she's fine picking other birds then i wouldn't worry about Woodpigeon until she's a bit more experienced. You can put them in a sock, pair of tights etc but when picked in a shooting scenario those horrid fluffy feathers are still going to come out....

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Try not to put her on wood pigeon for now if it worries her. Their feathers are much looser and come out easier. If she's fine picking other birds then i wouldn't worry about Woodpigeon until she's a bit more experienced. You can put them in a sock, pair of tights etc but when picked in a shooting scenario those horrid fluffy feathers are still going to come out....

 

Thanks for the Quick reply bigbird! I got a tip from a friend who puts rubberband around the wings to get them tight around the body of the bird. That seems to help. If a have a new shot pigeon in my hand and give the bird to the dog and say "fetch" she takes the bird in her mouth and holds it fine until I say l "release" and she gives me the bird. I Think that she is a bit excited about the whole situation. A lot of birds, shots and more.

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feral pigeons feathers don't come out as easy try a few retrieves with them and mix them up with the woodies and the ducks she likes to retrieve .get it to be a normal thing for the dog to do try to build a bit of experience by using a mixture of birds in a training session hope this makes sense

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A good bird to use if you can get them are ducks and teal. The feathers are probably the tightest of any bird a gundog will get familiar with. Good advice from the others though I'd avoid feral pigeons because they are often very dirty.

I use teal and ducks when we train, they work perfect and she loves to collect and retrieve them. I think that the biggest problem are that she gets so excited over the shooting, decoys and dropping birds so she can't get control over herself. It feels that she isn't mentally mature for pigeons at the moment.

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They've got really loose chest feathers, i don't know any dog with half a brain cell who actually relishes picking woodies lol

My crazy cocker has a real passion for pigeon. ( no brain )

He does get in quite a mess with the feathers.

He passes through the ones he swallows. Next day.

I do make sure he has access to lots of water while retrieving.

That does seem to help.

I can imagine pigeon feathers can annoy some dogs.

They are dry and light and stick around the mouth.

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  • 2 weeks later...

my English springer " Archie " loves picking pigeon up,, in saying that he loves squirrels, not too keen on using him on crows ect but have to say he just loves bringing things back to me,,

 

it must just be the welsh springers that have no brain bigbird :lol::lol: :lol: :lol::lol:

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