What do you do with your hunting dog when the hunting season ends? Join the club! I’m talking about clubs where you can compete in AKC hunt tests, field trials and fun hunts. I wasn’t able to be there Saturday but Annie passed her first leg of the AKC title “Junior Hunter”. My good friend Chris Colt handled Annie in her first AKC hunt test and she did great. It takes 4 passing runs before she obtains the official JH title behind her name. The spring hunt test was hosted by the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Utah (GSPCU) of which I am one of the newest members.
Next month we will be attending a National Shoot To Retrieve Association (NSTRA) field trial to see how that particular competition is run. I just received my NSTRA membership packet and rule book in the mail today. I look forward to competing with Annie in these competitions and especially look forward to making some new friends and seeing some talented dogs. Joining a local hunting dog club is a great way to meet new people and learn how to train dogs. Club members are always willing to offer advice and even help you in training your hunting dog. Many clubs meet monthly and often host just for fun hunts or training days as well as formal gun dog competitions.
So get off the couch and join a local bird dog club or gun dog association and get your dog tuned up for next years hunting season. Here are a couple of hunting dog clubs to look into:
AKC Hunt Tests for Pointing Dog Breeds
National Shoot To Retrieve Association (NSTRA)
North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA)
The Versatile Hunting Dog Federation (VHDF)
American Field Trial Clubs of America (AFTCA)
When learning to train a hunting dog your’e bound to make a few mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes can be easily fixed while others are costly and have a ripple effect. Jake was one of my first hunting dogs and we brought him home at 7 1/2 weeks old. He was very well socialized and had good bird and gun introduction early on. Jake had a great nose and was pointing birds solid at 6 months. When he was just about a year old I shot my first pheasant over him and things were going extremely well. I was proud of Jake and invited a few friends to come see his pointing dog skills.
Looking back it is easy for me to see that I made a mistake, but at the time I was baffled. It is a risky proposition to take a young dog hunting with 3-4 hunters and shoot 20 or so pheasants. I’m pretty sure he was not shot or peppered but I think there were just too many guns going off each time a bird was flushed. He looked great and held his points well for the first bird or two and then he started bumping birds. By the end of the hunt he was blinking birds and cowering at every gunshot. At the time I thought he just had a bad day and was making young dog mistakes. But, it was a lot worse than that.
The next time I took him out alone and planted a couple of birds, he took one look at the shotgun and headed back to the ATV before a shot was even fired. He was still interested in birds and I tried a hundred ways to coax him through it, but he was just plain done hunting. We struggled with it for a while because he was our best behaved dog and the kids liked him a lot. But, I didn’t see the point in keeping him around knowing that he would be left in the kennel every time we went out hunting with the other dogs. Jake deserved better.
Now I know there are some real pros out there that could have pulled Jake through it. But, over a year or so of trying I had no success and I was ready to move on. I ended up contacting a shorthair rescue in Arizona that was able to find Jake a happy home with an active family. We were sad to see him go but we knew he would be better of as a beloved pet than the lone dog left in the kennel. I learned some important lessons while raising and training Jake those three years. Most importantly that you can’t get in hurry with dog training. If your dog is struggling or showing signs of noise sensitivity – slow down, back up a step or even start again from the beginning. It’s never good to take a young dog hunting with a big crowd. I think one gun is plenty for the first year or so of real hunting. I’d be curious to hear of others experiences with gun shy dogs.
The quail recall pen is getting good use now that the quail are getting the hang of using the funnel and getting back in the pen each day. We made the mistake of letting quite a few go the first day and then we flushed them scattering them quite far. After 2 days only 2 had recalled out of about 12-14 that were released. We hit the books and learned that there is a training period for the birds to learn to recall and use the funnel. The key during the first few days is to let them out and not flush them so they stay close and figure out the entrance. After about a week of this you can start flushing the birds and begin using them for dog training.
After the mistake these are the 12 or so bobwhite quail that were left in the recall pen. We have more quail to restock the pen with and think about 25 is a good number for this size of pen. We will be finding a more permanent home for the recall pen for the summer months as the farmer will be wanting to cultivate this ground soon. We hope to use the quail recall pen for dog training during the summer months on private property.
One of my favorite things about training dogs is sharing with others, especially young people. I invited a couple of friends the other day to come and watch my dogs work and to be my shooters. My neighbor and avid hunter John C. (left) with his son had a fun time chasing pheasants while I worked with Annie on being more steady on point. My other friend Aaron came up from SG with his son to see the cover and tour the pheasant hunting preserve where I work as a guide. Aaron raises and trains german shorthairs and is the breeder of the dog Ace that I am currently working with.
Chris Colt of cove mountain kennels was out working with his new english pointer “Max”. It was his first time to watch Max working around birds and he was anxious to see where to start the training. Max seemed to have plenty of bird drive and not much problem with guns and noise sensitivity. It was fun to be the bird man for Chris and to watch him work and train the dogs from his kennel. Chris has been looking for a new pointing dog since he lost his wirehair Aika this past year to old age. This new english pointer just might be the ticket. Watch the video of Max’s first pheasant on YouTube.
Ace did well and had a fabulous back with Annie pointing a covey of wild valley quail that live on the property. We are trying to grow the quail population on the pheasant farm as they are a nice addition to the game birds. We use bobwhite quail for training but the valley quail are much more beautiful. I wish I could have got a picture of it but I was proud of Annie and Ace for their solid bird work.
A few days ago I shot over Ace from about 50 yards out with my 12 gauge. He was intent on chasing a bird and did not flinch at all at the sound of the gun. For the last week or so I had been firing a blank gun when he was chasing birds. He seemed to be doing well and his bird drive was coming along nicely. He still has not yet pointed a bird, but I am sure this will come.
Today I took Ace out with my Brittany “Annie” to chase some pheasants on the pheasant preserve. I brought my gun along just in case the right opportunity came along. Annie found some birds feeding in an uncut grain field and she went on point. Ace slowed and started advancing to see what Annie was up to. A rooster flew up and both dogs gave chase. The situation was perfect and the dogs were about 50 feet away and I dropped the rooster with one shot. Annie beat Ace to the downed bird so I held Annie and threw it out for Ace and he retrieved it nicely. We jumped a few more birds but the dogs were too close so I didn’t shoot. We will try this again in a few days.
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.
Abby has come a long way since I first took her chukar hunting at six-months old (her first hunt). Now, two years later and heading into her 3rd full hunting season she is showing real signs of greatness. This year Abby is getting a lot of birds by working with me as a hunting guide at a pheasant hunting preserve. She is holding her points well and is steady to shot about 60% if the time. She is learning to run down winged and wounded birds and is getting better at finding dead birds that she didn’t mark when multiple birds go down.
One thing that she does well is retrieving. Abby has a soft mouth and loves to bring birds back. She seems to know who shot the bird and often delivers the bird to the hunter who made the kill. Abby is quite agressive for a female and will try to steel a retrieve from another dog that beats her to the downed bird. We are working on this.
My friend Chris and I got out a little late on the morning of the dove hunt opener. There were quite a few hunters around where we live so we tried to get away a bit and find some open space. We worked a canal that had a lot of wild sunflowers growing along the banks. The weather was beautiful although a bit windy as a cool-front was moving in from the north. Chris ended up shooting 2 dove and I ended up shooting at about 6 dove and never hit one. It was still a good time and fun to watch the dogs work. Chris’ lab goes crazy at the sound of a gun shot and is a retrieving machine. Abby, my shorthair was just glad to get out and run. We are anxiously awaiting the chukar season which has been moved back a few weeks here in Utah.
It won’t be long now before the fall hunting season kicks off here in Utah. Firs off is the dove hunt which opens on September 1st. I have been trying to get my dogs into shape after a lazy summer of doing nothing. I can tell that they are a little soft and will take a few weeks to get the fat burned off. I took some quail out today and let Abby point a few and she was holding real nicely. I hope to get her a lot of birds this year as I plan to guide a lot more for Rooster Valley Pheasant Hunting Preserve here in town. It seems like nothing brings a dog along faster than birds, birds and even more birds.
Had a great time at the Dave Walker dog training seminar yesterday at the Lee Kay Center in Salt Lake City. I was a little disappointed in the turnout from the local crowd, but the smaller group made for an excellent day for those of us that were there. We were all able to get one-on-one training and advice from Dave while he worked with each of our dogs several times. Here is a picture of Dave working with my Brittany dog Annie. I was able to learn several things that will help me and Annie get to the next level which is steady to wing and shot.
Two highlights for me were first winning the brand new Tri-tronics Pro 500 G2 EXP Training collar in the raffle. I have been wanting a 2-3 dog training collar system for quite a while. The Tri-Tronics collar is as good as it gets and is over a $500 value. This is the model that Dave Walker uses as well. The second highlight for me was the privilege of buying Dave Walker dinner after the long day and to just chat with and get to know him better. Besides being a hall of fame dog trainer he is also a real down-to-earh person and a true gentleman. Thanks to Dave and his friend Charles for taking the time to come down to Utah. I took a lot of notes and got much more than my money’s worth. Thanks to the folks at the Wasatch Front Brittany Club for hosting the event.
I highly recommend Dave Walker’s book “The Bird Dog Training Manual”. The book is a culmination of more than 3 decades of dog training wisdom. I didn’t have my checkbook at the seminar so I ordered the book online from his website. His methods are sound and humane and when you see them put into practice you will be an instant convert. If you ever have a chance to attend one of Dave’s seminars, don’t miss it.
