November 2008 Archives

Ace has been chasing clipped wing pigeons for a few days now and is bringing the birds back to me. He enjoys the chase and loves to carry the birds in his mouth. Today I tried a clipped wing hen pheasant with just a bit removed from her flight feathers. She was quite big and could fly about fifty yards only a foot or two off the ground. Ace had no problems with her size or strength and ran the bird down quickly. One more day of builiding prey drive and we will start flushing birds in front of him and begin learning about scent.

Maddy is a 12 week old shorthair that we are working with. I let her chase the hen pheasant when Ace was finished and she did great with it.

I am working with a six month old german shorthair named Ace. He has had little training, and doesn't even respond to his name most of the time. He is well-bred and has a very easy-going personality. My hope is to get him started on birds as I work at the pheasant farm this fall. Ace should be a fun dog training project for me.

This morning I took him out with a clipped-wing pigeon to begin his formal introduction to birds. Pigeons are a good choice for a first bird contact because of their small size and availability. I clipped about 2-3 inches off of this birds flight feathers. I wanted him to flap his wings and make a lot of action, but not be able to fly very far away.

Ace loved every minute of this first introduction to birds. He chased and played with the bird for a minute or two then brought me the bird. I threw the pigeon out a couple of times more and he gave chase and brought the bird back. I was pleased with the results and after about 10 minutes we ended the session. I'll try to have a daily touch with birds of some kind for a week or two until he is pointing and holding his birds.