Training birds

[Summer DucK]

Live in Summerville and needing to find a place that has live birds. Took the new puppy to the field this weekend and he is scared of wounded birds. Read a great article in Wildfowl on how to build up the puppies concidence when retrieving wounded birds. Puppy is only 12 weeks old and did great in the field. Never seen a puppy so excited about a bird! Boy was I pround of the little guy. Any you guys have any ideas or things I should try dealing with the birds. Thanks Chris

[Fish]

Sounds like you and your pup have got it figured out. If your pup is jacked up about birds now you've got it made. Keep putting birds in front of that dogs to foster his enthusiasm.

The main thing with taking a pup into the field for the opening day, or any day for that matter, is to stay focused on the pup. Don't get carried away shooting while your pup is off doing whatever at his leisure. I have found the best way to work a pup in this situation is to allow someone else to shoot or limit yourself to one shot for one bird and put the gun down till the bird is in hand. Incidentally, dove hunting is one of the hardest thing we do with our dogs. The heat and the feathers are hard on pups. Even a properly forced fetched pup will often drop a dove when it will routinely deliver ducks to hand. The feathers really put them off. If your little kid had a good time, feathers and all, then "big ups" to you my brotha!

[Candor]

What kind of wounded birds is he having trouble with (doves, pigeons, ducks)?

[gundogguru]

You did'nt take a 12 week old to a dove shoot did you? At 12 weeks old you should be working with very dead birds a flapping bird can feak out a puppy and do long term damage. I hope your not blasting away with a 12 ga at that age. I have 9 week old and just started with a blank pistol. Just take your time and go slow.

[Sasha and Abby]

I agree with the guru...

[willtim]

Your dog is wwwaaayyy too young to be in the field and handling cripples.Slow down.At 12 weeks,your pup should only be doing "happy retrieves" and socialization.

[BrownDog]

Contact these guys and they should be able to help you find birds www.charlestonretrieverclub.com
If you are not a member of a retriever club you might want to consider joining one. AKC/UKC it realy does not matter as most are very willing to help any way they can. If you do not have a traning program and are planning to train the pup yourself you may want to check out the smartwork program by Evan Graham at www.rushcreekpress.com
There are allot of good Pro's in SC that produce very good dogs so if you go that route you should be in good shape.
Good training. If you are in Columbia/Blythewood some time send me a PM, you are welcome to come train with us.

[Duckman#1]

I have pigeons if intrested pm me.

[Mars Bluff]

Live in Florence. I have pigeons. They work great!! pm me.

[Fish]

Well fellas, it appears from SummerDuck's discussion that his pup did in fact handle the shooting and the live birds with no problems. You guys sound like LabLeaver worrying about someone over-stimulating a dog with a collar.

[Duckman#1]

Took the new puppy to the field this weekend and he is scared of wounded birds

Maybe this is what they were referring to.

[Fish]

Maybe they were. [img]graemlins/confused.gif[/img] I was looking more at the "Never seen a puppy so excited about a bird!" part.

[Summer DucK]

Guys thanks for the concern and helping me locate the birds. Yes I did carry him to a dove shoot and the puppy had a great time. Shot the gun a total of 12 times all day and the pup never wimped. If anything he starts looking in the direction. Never pushed puppy to do anything he did not want to do and he had a blast. Chewing on corn stalks and what ever else he could find. I know you can push a pup to much and cause him to lose interest. But he learned alot and boy does he love a dove, as long as it is not flapping! This pup has it in his blood and all I have to do is fine tune him. My father always had the best luck with dogs and always stated that a man deserves one good woman and one good dog in his life. Dad sure knew the meaning of happiness!

[Candor]

Originally posted by Summer DucK:
This pup has it in his blood and all I have to do is fine tune him.

Good luck with that. A retriever usually needs more than fine tuning though. They have a natural desire to retrieve but to have a gun dog that is worth occupying space in a dog box he will need discipline, marking development, and a few other things depending on how good a partner you want.

Every man is different as are our dogs. You can teach more bad habits than good by taking them out there for more than a few minutes at this age.

[tradorion]

Don't know where my post went- but it went something like this...

Enjoy him- he is above all else YOUR DOG... and the joy you get from training him will be immeasurable... I am by no means a pro or even semi-pro trainer- but i have trained a few in my life and they always give me more fun than the dogs i have worked that the other fellow polished up... and each man decides what is best for his dog...

2 friends had littermates, a bitch and a male- the bitch was put on doves by her 5th month and ducks before her 8th... the male was made into a field trial postrer child with the owner swearing his dog wouldn't see a hunt until he was "ready"... I was always AWED at the precision the male showed in his 1.5years of training pre-hunting... and even further awed when the bitch fetched a limit of doves at pre-5 months and ducks before 8... and never had a problem while her brother upon his debut ate the first 1/2 dozen doves dropped and ran wild all over the field. Come duck season she had to fetch the first duck dropped after her brother brought in 3 dekes without coming close to feathers...

Not saying that too early can't burn a dog- but if the shoot was too hot (temperatures), too fast (lots of shooting) and too many other dogs and people then the value of socialization and getting used to the action of a field coupled with some birds on the ground can't hurt in my opinion...

in response to the wounded bird question- work more with dead birds and playing around/moving them a good bit to psyche him up... i think he'll get the picture.

R