Training with a Recall Pen
We have been having a great time using the new quail recall pens to train young bird dogs. This young german shorthair went nuts the first time we ran her on the bobwhite quail. She chased and chased until she figured out that she was never gonna catch them. After a few days of chasing birds she settled down and started pointing them. Luna learned pretty quickly that creeping is not okay on covey birds because you never know when a single is gonna bust out of the brush at your feet. We don’t give many commands while working these young dogs on quail. We just let the bobwhite quail train the bird dogs and they seem to get the hang of it. This is definitely a great way to accelerate the learning process. The best part is the birds call back to the pen and you can do it all again the next day, and the next…
Would like to learn more about the recall pen. Where can I find more info. I am a professional hunter in South Africa, and we use GSP’s on francolin and guineafowl.
I have a 9 month old pup (1/2 Vizsla and 1/2 Weim) and I have been training her on bobwhite quail. I built a recall box and the birds are coming back to the box and hanging around, but not going in the funnel to get back into the box. I thought my funnel may be too high off the ground, so I put a cinder block under it to allow the birds to land on it and walk into the funnel, but still no luck.
Anyone have any ideas??
We did build up the dirt to the funnel a bit to make it a natural path. One thing to try is putting the water right behind the funnel. If they get thirsty they will figure it out. Another thing we always do is manually put them through the funnel a couple times. Especially when we stock the pen with quail. We don’t use the doors we place all of the new quail in through the funnel.