Dirty Harry Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 (edited) My GWP is 13 months old now and although I have not been training every day I am quite pleased with his progress. Today I was old shooting and shot a couple of pheasant that landed in the field next the the one I was in. I had to walk almost all the way back to the house to get into said field so I decided to get the dog and give him a few retrieves. The field had a dozen beef cattle in but as he will recall 99% of the time I thought I would give him a go. All of the cowpats were a bit distracting to him but he was soon onto the first of the pheasant. As he got to it he went to pick it up and with that the bird was up and running. Rudi was straight on the case and caught the bird. He has never had this happen before and I have only given him 2 planted pheasant retrieves before. I was expecting him to be a bit brutal with it but he surprised me and brought it straight to me. He held onto it until I gave him the dead" command and I was able to dispatch the bird. We moved onto the next but with that the first bird started to flap like mad (just the nerves). Rudi obviously thought the bird was making a break for it so before I could do anything about it he had the bird in his mouth and made sure it was dead Anyway he found the other bird and retrieved it well. I am really chuffed that he caught the first bird and it does not seem to have put him off at all. He still had a long was to go, particulary with his pointing but slow and steady..... Harry Edited October 11, 2009 by Dirty Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeksofdoom Posted October 10, 2009 Report Share Posted October 10, 2009 Excellent stuff the first runner my GWP retrieved she made bits of him. But she hasn't done it since ut was just all the excitement. He's done real well on his first day out. GWP's are great rough shooting dogs. Did he point the birds aswell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Harry Posted October 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 11, 2009 I did not take him shooting with me. He is not ready yet. I just used him for the retrieve. Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted October 12, 2009 Report Share Posted October 12, 2009 just watch him Harry, flapping birds are just the excuse they need to start killing them and shaking etc, Its a habit very hard to break once they've started so to my mind I'd get him 100% on dead birds first. Its a niisance but my GWP started doing it on pigeons as she found a couple of flappers. Touch wood not done it again but I did make sure for a while that they were well dead. As you say though cracking dogs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Harry Posted October 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2009 al4x, I saw the bird go down and assumed it was dead. I was a bit worried when it got up and ran off but was really over the moon when he returned with it intact. I will be careful as I don't want to spoil him but if had not had him with me I would never have got the bird back. It was heading for some really thick cover and I would not have been quick enough. Cheers Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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