Spoon River NAVHDA Chapter

I had Duke out this weekend for the first time on wild pheasants.  Duke seemed to be having trouble pointing them.  He only got one decent point.  For most of my training I use the bird launcher and homing pigeons (which Duke does decent on).  Now I am trying to plant the birds and see if that helps.  The bird launcher must add scent.  Now the only issue is if Duke works to close I don't have the option to launch the bird.

Anyone have any advice on starting a young dog pointing wild birds?

Loop-

I have very limited experience on wild birds. So I dont even feel confident in giving you advice. But I will give you a few thing that pop up in my mind. Hopefully in the mean time some of our more seasoned hunters will pop in and give some more sound advise.

You mentioned that you train with pigeons. Most of us do. Did you accustom the dog to pheasant in any of your training? Make sure he knoiws that they are a game bird, what they smell like and how to handle them.

Pheasant RUN! even great dogs experience difficulty pinning down a bird. My dogs nose is so sensitive she will point where it was, and I will kick and kick only to find out that the bird has run up 30 yards. She is an excellent tracker, and Im hoping that she will eventually learn to put it all together and eventually track the running bird untill she is on it. She will most likely bump a couple. And Ill forgive. She just has to figure this out.

There is an excellent article on this in the most recent Gun Dog magazine. Its titled A pointing Dog For phesant. Run out and pick up an issue. It will give you some insight. But I think just real experience is the best way for Duke to learn. It reminds me of my first Grouse and Woodcock hunt this year. I had no idea what I was getting into, or how to prepare the dog for it. I dont know if there is a way to prepare for that! But through trial and error, she caught on. And before long she was pointing and holding biurds that she did not even know existed the day before.

Hope you start getting some helpful replies. Try a couple of controlled preserve hunts where you have a little bit of controll of the issue and see if that helps also.

Ryan,

I am not a dog training expert by any means so take what i say with a grain of salt.

Was your dog on the birds but just not locking up solid on point?  The first thing that comes to my mind is that the birds may be running on your dog.  The one dog that i have the first couple ditches she was not getting good points but once she caught on she was locking up.  My puppy on the other hand tends to "bump" into a lot of birds and ends up flushing them.  He is getting better and in the last week has been getting some solid points.  I would say if this is the first season with your dog just put him on as much exposure as you can.  Some people say don't shoot unless the dog points the bird but i have never stuck to this.  I like to get them fired up as much as i can about birds and the dogs i have had ended up pointing very well.  I'm sure one of these times that will come back to get me but it is what has worked so far so i will stick with it.

If you can hunt at first light on a cold morning with a nice frost the birds may sit tight and this could help you bring out a little more point.  Also hunts after snow tend to be very good for the birds holding.

Also remember if your dog is a first year hunter he will not be a pro-hunter right off the bat like some of the dogs you have most likely watched hunt at training days.  I don't know where youa re located at but you should try to find some members close and they will most likely be willing to go and hunt with you to help out.

Guys thanks for the replys and help.  I think you are right its just going to take some time and experience with wild birds.  The only thing that threw me for a loop is that he was doing so well with pen raised pheasants/chukar and pigeons.  Also, I have done a lot of work with remote releases and had never cleaned it.  I think all the built up bird crap and smell was making it too easy for Duke to smell.   Last weekend we went out and saw several birds again.  I started out using the checkcord which helped slow Duke down and he started to smell the birds but bumped them.  After a while I let him off the checkcord and he got one good point.  But still missed a couple.  Wyss thanks for the advice on shooting the birds.  I had been letting the ones not pointed fly off.  But that is awfully hard to do.

That's good that everything is working for you.  I would probably just let the pup off the check chord 100%.  They seem to learn fairly fast if they are hunting for themselves and not you that they most likely are not going to catch a wild pheasant.  They will figure out to work close and point will reward them with a bird.