MadSpringer Posted February 2, 2004 Report Share Posted February 2, 2004 Hi I have a 3 year old Springer dog trained for picking up; he’s done a damn fine job over the past two seasons a little head strong but has a great nose. Anyway one of the local midweek shoots has been short of beaters so I was asked if I could beat and help out with picking up at the end of the drive. Yep no problem rather book some time off and work the dog than be at work. So I took the lad beating, total of 8 days over the season, a little hard to keep close at first but soon settled in to it! Over the last three days beating he managed to peg half a dozen birds, not a problem the birds didn’t get up and he’s just doing the job he’s trained for. Two of these birds had been damaged but I wasn’t concerned because one was stuck in some very thick briars and the other was in a hole in a tree root, the damage being done trying to pull them out. Whilst picking up on another shoot he had not damaged any birds, dead or runners, he has a very soft mouth! My concern came after being invited to shoot on an end of season walk around on Saturday, all was fine I shot OK and the dog was steady and had some nice retrieves. On the next to last drive I sent him for a cock bird that had been pricked and glided in to the far wood. Anyway my heart sank when he retrieved the mangled remains but had no time to ponder on it as we wanted to get the last drive in. On this drive the keeper pricked a cock bird and I put my dog straight on it as it was gliding a long way back, he returned with another mangled bird (damn!!). So I sat him at the side off me while the drive continued, I dropped a cock bird which came down 15 yards away and in runs the dog and starts ragging it. What a bloody **** end to what’s been a great season, so you can imagine I feel pretty low as my dog has never done this before, nor have I experienced it with any dog in the past. A few folks on the shoot say once they start ragging birds you’ll never stop them, I know this is probably true. Once they become hard mouthed that’s it! Sunday I hid a few dead birds around the garden and sent him out to retrieve them, The hens were fine but he had a good grip on the cock birds. Now I’m not sure whether I could have brought this on by taking him beating or he’s been spurred by a cock bird and now just goes in for the kill! Has anyone else experienced this? Has anyone managed to reduce it if not cure the problem? I also use him whilst pigeon shooting but I’m not keen on taking him for a while. May be best not to give him any retrieves for a few months. Any advice or comments welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new to the flock Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 Mad Springer: I would bet that your dog has taken a bad spurring from a not so dead cock bird in the past. Now hes getting even with every one he comes across, and is not taking any chances of a repeat performance. Take heart it can be cured. I had a lab that went through this exact same problem. Start off by not giving him any birds for the next couple of weeks, just play fetch with him, bumpers, ball, stick, whatever. During this 2 weeks locate yourself 5 or 6 cock pheasants and put them in the freezer, be sure to place them neat and tidy feet tucked up and wings tight to the body. I would put at least 3 with the head tucked under a wing as well. At the end of the 2 weeks go into the back yard, start the session with a couple of bumper retrieves, and then toss a frozen pheasant. As soon as he picks it up call him and praise him all the way in. Don't let him even realize he has a cock bird. Continue to mix this up using bumpers and pheasants for the next 20 minutes half an hour. Repeat this exercise for 2 weeks using frozen birds, then start to thaw your birds out, and bring them up to outside temperature. This way you have soft birds that smell just like shot pheasants in the field. Be sure to run these exercises in your back yard where you have control of the situation and where the birds land in zero cover. You want to be sure you can see everything that is happening. Use the thawed birds for the next 2 weeks in your yard, at the end of this start to run the exercises in short cover, but keep the retreives short and the praise high for the first bit. All you are doing is teaching him that all cock birds are not bad, and reajusting his attitude. I would think that if he is not giving you a problem with hens that you would have no problems running him on pigeons after the first 2 weeks. Good luck and Keep It FUN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadSpringer Posted February 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2004 Thanks NTTF ! Really appreciate your advice. As you can imagine I was a little down to say the least to have him develop this fault. It’s good to hear you managed to sort your lab with the methods you have suggested, I look forward to putting them in to practice on my dog. I now have 8 cock birds in the freezer! I will keep you up to date with his progress! Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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