Just a bit of help please.

[BRNDL]

Hello all,

 

You may or may not remember me asking about introducing gun noise on here, but just to follow up on that my pup is now 100% fine and will sit next ti me in the hide whilst I bang away. We did 8 hours without so much of a flinch!

 

My question is;

 

When you have dead birds in the pattern and you send your dog to retrieve the one shot, how do you differentiate between a pattern bird and the one you want them to bring back? I did think about the dog marking the bird but when inside the hide this must be difficult??

 

Just an FYI we are in the early stages of fully retrieving under gun fire so please bare in mind she is 11 months old.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

BRNDL

[Penelope]

Stop whistle and directional training have to be spot on along with the dog's full understanding of Leave/No when/if it attempts to pick a dead bird used as a decoy. Your marking needs to be good too, so that you know what bird you want the dog to pick.

Edited September 24, 2013 by Penelope

[BRNDL]

Yes she is really responsive to the stop whistle and getting there with the directional training. Do you think it would be worth while setting up a decoy pattern and working her in that or would it be too confusing?

 

I could set up and throw a bird for her to retrieve??

[Penelope]

Would only be a worthwhile exercise if you used cold dead birds for the decoys and a fresh warm bird as the shot bird. Not worth it with placcy shells and the like.

 

At 11 months it may be a little early for this anyhow.

[Dave1087]

I think you need to do a lot more trainning with her befor you take her out on game don't rush it if you do you will regret it

I made the mistake of going out with the dog too soon befor I had all the commands and steady ness

[Essex Keeper]

My dog will go out to marked birds but she won't pick up birds tha she's all ready bought back and I have put in pattern I believe she must smell her self on them

Edited September 25, 2013 by m2tyj

[BRNDL]

My dog will go out to marked birds but she won't pick up birds tha she's all ready bought back and I have put in pattern I believe she must smell her self on them

 

Hmmm yes. That makes sense M2. Thanks for that.

 

I am not working her hard. She is watching and learning another dog. I just send her for some of the easy birds then let her tuck back into the hide.

[ditchman]

Would only be a worthwhile exercise if you used cold dead birds for the decoys and a fresh warm bird as the shot bird. Not worth it with placcy shells and the like.

 

At 11 months it may be a little early for this anyhow.

 

 

 

penelope is spot on.......i trained my dogs through "trail and error"......leave-leave-leave............gud-gud-gud......eventually the dog sussies what you want through smell...but if you chucked out into the garden a dozen old freezer birds then sat your dog up and chucked out a fresh bird....do that a couple of times ....then the next time ...a few freezer birds...then show the dog the fresh bird...then sit the dog up "blind"..chuck the bird out and bring the dog to heel...steady it and then give the command to "hunt-em-up"...you would turn it into a game which the dog would love....DONT OVER DO IT...COUPLE OF TIMES ONLY AND FINISH ON A HIGH...jobs a gooden

[jeffd]

It comes with experience providing you do a fair amount pigeon shooting, when I used to shoot a lot of pigeons my dogs learnt only to pick up live birds or warm birds, not something I really taught other than directing them to the bird I wanted collected, by the time the dogs had had a couple of seasons they just knew what to pick up no direction needed.