I wish my dog........

[dogonpoint]

All of us that venture afield with our dogs love our animals, but just like us many of them could be better in certain situations.  Maybe someone here has had a similar experience that could help with our ongoing pursuit of the perfect hunting companion.  I guess I'll go first.

I wish my dog was a better tracker of downed/wounded birds.  If a bird falls dead there is typically no problem, but if there is a wounded bird that is on the run, its a crap shoot.  Now I guess it comes with the territory having a pointing dog that takes scent out of the air instead of off the ground...as some of the continental breeds do.  Or I guess I could just start hitting the trap range and become a better shot!

[Mayfly]

After the first year my biggest complaint was tracking downed birds. That was fixed last year. She really surprised me a couple times and came up with the bird this past year.

Now I think my wish would be for her to retrieve live or wounded birds. I'll knock a bird down and she'll get right on it. Rather than pick the bird up and bring it to me, she will just pin the bird and wait for me. I really have to encourage her to pick up that wounded bird. I can recall a time in her first season where she picked up a wounded bird and am pretty sure she got a couple spurs right in the face. I am thinking that is what is causing this now.

Besides that I just wish that she would never ever miss a bird. It would be interesting to actually know how many birds have eluded our little dogs. I know that I have hunted with people and their dogs miss a bird and 2 seconds later Luci pop up a rooster and vice versa. When I'm out there alone we have to be walking over birds or have birds running from us that we never see. Sneaky birds they are!

Here is some pics from last year.....

Luci on the right Marshall's dog on the left "DancingBear"

[labbydog6]

Dogonpoint,

If I understand correctly your dog won't track a wounded bird. Is that correct.

Your pointing dog is no different then any other hunting breed when it comes to trailing crippled birds. You need to teach them to hunt dead. With a pointing dog this is especially important.

I have no idea how old your dog is or what training level he is at but he still can be taught to hunt dead. If he is solid as a rock on point he still can be taught to hunt dead.

Now, rather then explain how to do this for the next fifteen paragraphs I will just see if anyone responds to this and needs help.

I am more then willing to help when I have the time or the answer. I have trained dogs for over 20 years now and unfortunately, I still don't have it all figured out. I have a few throw new curves at me every year, but that is dog training. They are just like kids, they are all different and one training method does not always work.

This is the reason you see so many pro trainers burn out young dogs. They have so many people backed up waiting to get their dogs in that either your dog can handle the pressure of the trainers program or.......he gets burned out. Unless you have a trainer that is more interested in satisfying his customers and protecting their dogs then collecting the monthly fees.

It is not all their fault because they run big operations and it takes a lot to cover all the expenses. The thing is some of these guys know what the outcome is going to be with the dog a week after they are working with him and either continue to break him down or just let him sit in the kennel for a couple months charging you 600+ per month plus kennel charges, mileage, birds, and just about anything else they can think of. But like I said they also have a lot of expenses to run the kinds of programs they run, and don't get me wrong, they turn out some fantastic dogs.

My mentor who just passed on trained for over 50 years. I watched him fix so many burned out dogs that came from pro trainers it was ridiculous. Like I said, they run a big money program and have to be able to go through so many dogs a day. If a dog can't keep up with the program many of them will continue until he either can conform to the program or gets burned out. Then your hunting dog just became a nice companion,....period.

I have trained with five field trial pro's, a couple gundog trainers and my last mentor who I was with for many years. I watched him change his methods for each individual dog, and it worked a lot better for everyone involved. It takes a long time to learn how to read a dog correctly but fortunately there are those trainers out there who are very very good at what they do without being to hard handed with the dogs.

Happy training, I know I got off the subject.

[labbydog6]

Mayfly,

Your problem with your dog not retrieving right back to you whether it is a dummy, live or dead bird is a easy fix.

Now before I tell you this I will let you know there are many out there who will absolutely disagree with this but it is a fact.

Your dog needs to be force broke (force fetched).
It will solve your retrieving problems.

The bad thing is there is no way you can learn to properly do this from reading a book or watching a video (in my opinion). Every dog is different and you need to know when to let up and when to use the force.

I have helped people before via email or the phone but it can be difficult that way as well.

Dobbs has out a force training video and let me tell you things do not work like what he shows you.

The dog he has on the video in no way was just starting out. That dog had been on the table and started. No dog breaks out as easy as they make it seem.

Good luck.