Guss

I have a 3 year old Brit that I have hunted with for 3 seasons. I worked with him vary hard for the first year on obdiance and simple commands, and after that we just went hunting andI didnt do much else with him (we hunt alot, grouse and woodcock). He has a vary good nose and good pointing instincts, but I have never refined them. Can I still work on this, and what are some good ways to do it.

I also want to teach him to fetch (he finds down birds but wont bring them back to me). Should I wait untill I have the pointing stuff down?

I was thinking about trying totake him to one of thosepheasant farms (we had a tuff year and didnt see many birds), I have heard that some times the dog can catch the birds, that cant be good for a pointer. Is there any truthto that?

Thanks for any input.

Ow yah I dont have a collar and dont have the mony to get one so that method is out.

Birdman1

Guss,

I'm surely not a pro at this and I'm am learning as well, but here's what I can see from your post.

Have you done any reading? Books and especially videos are great. There are videos out there that help you refine the dog.

Secondly, on fetching. It would be good to see if you could at last borrow a collar. A little correction is needed when they disobey. If your dog will come when asked or "Whoa" when asked when you are not fetching, chances are your dog is thinking that the bird is his reward and doesn't need to give it to you when you ask him to bring it in. This is when a good correction is needed and you will probably only need to use the correction a few times. There are cheaper training collars out there for about $70, not the 300 or more for a bird dog collar. These cheaper collars are good for one thing, correcting the dog. That's what I can see you need right now. I'm sure you can find a collar on ebay for less than the $70 I quoted.

jameswilliamiii

Guss,
Be careful with the training methods that you use on your dog, or you may end up with one confused dog. Most training techniques are based on training a young dog or pup. Since your dig is older, you may need to use some different techniques that are based for older dogs. I would suggest talking to Jonesy about this, as I know he does a lot of corrective training for people. I am sure he will comment in this issue soon.

Red Earth

IT's never to late to teach a dog!

I get many older dogs, in for training, that have developed bad habits over the years. You want to honestly evaluate your dog, decide what you want and where you want to be by next hunting season, and make a game plan!

You dogs ability to take and uderstand direction and correction will dicatate the amount of time and course to take.

You can get this all done with out a E collar, just requires a little more time and dedication. There are some rather good deals on collars on E bay and some other BB's.

You can teach fetch while teaching everything else. You just have to take it in strides.

I would not take the dog no any more bird hunts until you have decided what you wany out of him. Sound slike to me you need to start off at square one again. The pen raised birds on gamr farms are easy for a dog to catch.

So.....in short....come up with a plan.....

Do you want your dog to be broke on birds?
Go with the shot?

Retrieve?

What are his faults right now?
Why is he making these mistakes? Most are man made....fixing some of his problems might require a different procedure out of you as well.

I'll help out as much as possible as well as others on this site would too, I'm sure!

Phil
REO

Guss

Thanks for the responces guys.

I dont know if it was my wording or what but it must have come across that he has some faults in the woods. He realy dosent, he is a vary good hunter. He dose vary well on woodcock (they hold better then the grouse), he will hold a point on a woodie all day. He has alittle bit harder time with grouse because they tend to run, but some time wekill a domb one.

He is vary obedient, and teaching him has never been that hard. Basicaly what I was wondering is how can I work on refining his skills,we had such a bad year for birds that he didnt get much work in the feild and that is were he gets most of his experiance. That is why I was wondering about the farms.I had a freind take ahis pointerto one and the dog ended up killing all the birds. They were so slow to get off the ground that he would just grab them out of the air.

My dad's dog has become a vary good grouse dog in the last few years (he is 13 or 14 ytears old), maybe it is just somthing he has to learn by doing.

Thanks, and any othe input is welcome.

Phil from Maine

First of all I'm not any sort of professional and I'm not trying to sell
you on a pheasant farm. Here the grouse and woodcock have both
been hard going too. For as far as a dog catching a bird it can happen,
and it doesn't have to be at a pheasant farm.( mine has caught 4 wild birds from Robins to blackbirds my fault thinking he couldn't and it took
about six months to fix it ) But if you call them they can make suggestions and can set the birds out anyway you like. Good Luck

Mite

Catch 22; you're worried about your dog catching birds at a gamefarm so you want to refine your dog to be steady on wing and shot. But the only birds to train him for this is at the game farm.

Training a dog to be steady to shot that has been use to steady to wing is beyond my meager skills. But there's alot of very knowledgeable people here including professional trainers. Goodluck.

Flairball

There is a lot you can still do with your dog. I think everyone with a gun dogwill agree that the training never stops. Outside of the hunting season we all spend considerable time reinforcing thebasics, and doing yard work. It sounds to me like your dog has plenty of drive, and enthusiasm on the birds, so don't worry about having had a slow season. Work on basic obedience with the dog. This will reinforce your position of dominance over the dog. The dog won't forget how to point.

As far as the possibility of the dog catching birds; teach himto "whoa". Train him to stop, and stay standing where ever he is, when ever you say "whoa" until you release him with another command. I use "okay" to release my dog. This puts you in charge both in a hunting situation and outside of hunting. Working on "whoa" outside of the season is a great yard exercise. Once he is whoaing on command start adding distractions. Kick around in front of him, toss in a teathered pigeon, whatever. Also, increase the length of time you keep him whoaed. I think you will see this is a valuable command.

For the retrieving problem you mentioned, there are a few options I see, and I really don't know which would be the best. You could force break him to retrieve. It's a long, slow process, but insures reliable retrieving if done correctly. You could also sacrifice a few birds. By that I mean, the dog might get bored with holding the bird if you act like his having the bird is no big deal. Soon he might bring it to you to see it at which time you could carefully take it away from him. The problem here is that he might never get bored with them, or really enjoy eating them. Also, you could wait another season. My buddies Setter wouldn't retrieve until he was 3 or 4, then one day he realized we wanted the bird and brought it to us.

Anyway, one thing always leads to the next. I'd say do the yard work and whoa training, and see what developes next. Good luck