Today a friend came over and we trained his dogs. He owns 3 female pointers. We worked 2 older dogs on backing and a 1 year old on holding point. He hunts his dogs one at a time and they have not had the need or opportunity to honor another dog.
I have a backing dog from Lion Country Supply. I set it up behind some bushes with the dog up and a bird in a D.T. launcher in front. Then Don brought Kate out on a check cord. Kate was pulling him along pretty good. They rounded the bush and the instant that Kate saw the backing dog silhouette Don said whoa and stopped her with the check cord. I released the bird and laid the silhouette dog down. Don held her there for a few seconds then released her. Then he lead her away and I set a bird in the release and raised the dog up again.
Don brought her back and stopped her with a whoa in almost the same spot. Again I released the bird and laid the dog silhouette down. The third time she would have probably stopped on her on but he whoaed her any way. We put her on the chain gang and brought the other older dog out and went through the same scenario with her. She handled it as well as the first one did.
Three of my pigeons are nesting so I am down to only 8 pigeons to work dogs on until some come back. After working the older dogs I only had 2 pigeons left for the young dog. I put 2 pigeons out and Don worked the young dog (she is about a year old but hasn’t been hunted or worked on birds) toward the first planted pigeon. Don had her on a check cord but when she smelled the bird she went on point without him stopping her. She held point for about 45 seconds and when she started moving I flushed the bird.
That really fired her up and she was pulling Don with the check as she hunted. When she hit the scent cone on the next bird she locked up tight. She was low in front but her tail was 12 o’clock. She held point again for a good while and when she moved I flushed the bird. We put her back on the chain gang.
My pigeons get a lot of training in and they get smart. After I use them they land on top of my house and wait for me to get through training before they fly back to their home. We went in the house to trick them into going home. After about 30 minutes we checked and 4 had come back.
I put the backing dog out again and when we brought Kate around she honored the instant she saw the dog silhouette. This doesn’t mean she will back a dog. The next time Don comes over we will go through the same exercise. If she honors the next time we will use a real dog after that. But she is getting the idea she must stop.
We brought the other dog around and she honored the silhouette on her on. All dogs don’t pick this up this fast but these did. We put both of these on the chain gang and I put out the other 2 birds for the puppy.
As she drug Don through my training grounds she went close to the area she had pointed her first bird in earlier and wanted to point thinking there was a bird there. We kept walking and she wouldn’t let us get ahead of her. When we got close to the bird the wind had quit blowing. Don worked her almost all the way around the bird before she smelled it. There was no doubt when she smelled the bird. She slammed into a point. She crouches in front but her tail is straight up. Some times pigeons coming out of the launchers will cause the dogs to point with a high head. We will see if it does on her. When she moved I flushed the bird.
When she got close to the second bird there was still no wind. Again she had a little trouble getting the scent but when she hits it there is no doubt. Again she was low in front with a 12 o’clock tail. Then her head raised and she stood taller in front, still with a 12 o’clock tail. I counted a minute and fifteen seconds, then told Don I was going to flush the bird. She stayed on point without moving until I released the bird.
Watching dogs learn is one of my favorite things to do. It was a very satisfying day for me and I hope for Don. Now if I could train my pigeons to return quicker I could work more dogs.