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.
This week I guided three days at the pheasant hunting preserve. The birds get a bit silly this time of year and the roosters are running like crazy. The skittish birds and the sparse cover can make for some very challenging pheasant hunting conditions. Annie did well but I decided to take the owners seasoned shorthair pepper to help us out. Pepper has a unique talent that he has developed over 6-7 years of being a guide dog at the pheasant farm. When another dog goes on point, pepper circles around the bird to block their escape. This comes in quite handy when the roosters are running on us.
This is a picture taken after the successful late season pheasant hunt. Pepper’s blocking skills were much appreciated by the clients who ended up taking home a good pile of pheasants (mostly roosters). Another fun thing was a successful water retrieve by Annie when a bird was shot and dropped into the river. She is great with water retrieves as long as she marks the bird down. She hesitates a little still with blind water retrieves. We will work on this during the spring and summer training sessions.
I tried to get some video of Pepper demonstrating his unique skill, but I was a little late getting the camera out. The one thing I don’t like is that Annie won’t fight for a retrieve with a competitive dog. She will just let the other dog have it if they get to the bird at the same time. Sometimes I like to work Annie alone so she can do it all. Pepper is not one to share any of the retrieving duties. With all of our birds sold at the pheasant farm we are winding down for a few months until we get 5,000 day-old pheasant chicks in May and start the whole process over again.
This is a client dog making a pretty nice water retrieve at the pheasant hunting preserve today. The property has a river running through it and many times the birds flush across the river and sometimes when shot, drop in or on the other side of the river. Shorthairs are usually quite good at water retrieves but as quick as Sadie was to get across to the downed rooster, it took a little coaxing to get her to come back. The water was running pretty swift and very cold with the winter run-off. My Brittany dog Annie was the first one across the river but she didn’t mark the bird and had trouble locating and returned empty handed.
For the past 2 years I have been trying to make up my mind whether I prefer the Brittany or the German Shorthaired Pointer. When I was shopping I decided to buy both breeds and to train them and work with them side-by-side and see what differences I noticed along the way. First, I must say that I have enjoyed the experience immensely. In the end I knew I would have to make a hard decision because both dogs are highly qualified hunters and companions. I always intended to have a litter of pups down the road and felt like I only had the time, energy and resources to focus on one pointing breed at a time.
I have decided to stick with the Brittany dogs and currently have my german shorthair up for sale. Both are excellent pheasant hunting dogs and have been working at a pheasant preserve these past two seasons. One of the biggest things I have noticed is that the Brittanies seem to be more interested in people and human contact. As much as I tried to bond with my shorthair she just felt stand-offish and distant. Both dogs were raised in the kennel and the shorthair seems to suffer the most from this. If you can keep your dog in the house as a family companion, that is always the best situation for bonding and socializing.
I’m not proclaiming that Brittany dogs are better hunters, more friendly or even better looking. I just enjoy being around the Brittanies more. I hope to own a few other breeds througout my life and see if there are any real differences when you compare one breed to another. Largely, I think it is more about the individual dogs personality and traits that are inherited. Working as a hunting guide this year I have had the opportunity to hunt behind several nice breeds like Vizlas, Weimeraners, English Setters, Labs, English Pointers, French Brittanies, Chessies and in the end I am simply drawn to the American Brittany.
Ace had an allergic reaction to something this week and I had to take him to the vet for treatment. His poor little snout was swollen up and he was in obvious discomfort. The Vet gave hime a couple of shots and some antibiotics to fight against infection. He was pretty miserable but by the next morning he seemed as good as new. I have no idea what caused the reaction but the Vet suspected something like a spider bite. You can see where it started oozing after he scratched and pawed at it all morning. You never know what kind of trouble puppies are gonna get into.
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.
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.
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.
Had a great hunt yesterday with George and his son Chaz and his son-in-law. They were the first hunters of the season at Rooster Valley Pheasant Preserve where I am helping out as a guide. It was Chaz’s first time hunting pheasants and I think we got him hooked. They ended up with about 15 pheasants and they picked up a couple of dove along the way. George was hunting with his two labs “Blue” and “Sophie” and they did well together. I enjoyed putting the birds out and keeping an eye on their progress throughout the day.
Ace had an allergic reaction to something this week and I had to take him to the vet for treatment. His poor little snout was swollen up and he was in obvious discomfort. The Vet gave hime a couple of shots and some antibiotics to fight against infection. He was pretty miserable but by the next morning he seemed as good as new. I have no idea what caused the reaction but the Vet suspected something like a spider bite. You can see where it started oozing after he scratched and pawed at it all morning. You never know what kind of trouble puppies are gonna get into.
