The Training Of Annie

Posted on May 8, 2024 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

With all of the rain we have been getting, it’s hard to find time to work with Annie, other than just taking her for walks and throwing dog food in the grass. But these work well to get her used to going with me and the dog food in the grass makes her use her nose a lot. Some of the time I put a short check cord on her and when I call her name I draw her to me. I don’t expect her to come each time but with the check cord I can enforce the recall.

Annie waking a pigeon to fly away.

Annie pointing a pigeon asleep in the tall grass.

Annie searching for the pigeon.

A few days ago, as we walked by the retrieving bench I placed Annie on it. I have a chain and pulley system hooked to a cable that runs the length of the bench. I start getting them used to the bench early in their life. I hooked the chain to her collar and walked down the bench. She followed along for a little while then decided to jump off. The chain stopped her, but she was struggling to get back on the bench. I helped her. We walked up and down the bench and she never tried to get off again. A lot of times the dogs try a second time, but I don’t think I’ve ever had one try three times.

When the dogs are on the bench they can smell my breath. They enjoy smelling your breath when you are happy but they don’t enjoy smelling it when you are mad. I put her on the ground to run.

Several times I have put pigeons to sleep in the tall grass so she can find them. Now I’ve done it enough that she really watches me to see where I’m hiding one. In fact, on the way to my tall grass strips Annie was trying to attack the bird bag that I had the pigeons in. She is about ready for the pigeons to be placed in release traps.

To put a pigeon to sleep, I place his head under a wing and straighten the legs out. I don’t pull hard on the legs just straighten them until the pigeon relaxes then lay it on the side that has the head under the wing. The pigeon will stay for several minutes unless something wakes it. Sometimes on really windy days, with everything shaking, they won’t stay asleep very long.

When Annie got a little way ahead of me, this morning, I hid a pigeon in the tall grass. We had a pretty strong breeze, and she smelled the bird right away and pounced on it. While she was mouthing that pigeon, I put another to sleep a little farther down the strip. The pigeon she was mouthing got away and flew close to the ground for a long way with her right behind. She doesn’t always chase but she ran this one about 50 yards.

Annie finding dog food.

She came back just in time to find another bird real close to where she had found the other. She pounced on it. She tried to pick it up but she isn’t big enough yet. This bird got away and flew into a tree just above where it was hidden. Annie stood in her tracks and watched this one sitting in the tree.

Annie has already figured out that if she is going to find a bird it’s going to be in the tall grass strips. But she also knows who controls the birds. She doesn’t get very far from me. I snuck another bird into the tall grass. It’s hard to tell if she has a good nose or not. Just about the time I place the bird she pounces on it. When this bird got away it flew low and slow. Annie chased for 40 or 50 yards.

I had one more pigeon, but Annie was sticking to me. Finally, I got an opportunity to hide the bird. She pounced on it, immediately. It got away and flew to a low limb on a nearby tree. Annie stood and watched it. We went back to the kennel area.

When I put the bird bag in the shed, I got some adult dog food and tossed it in the grass near where I had a chair. In my opinion a lot of dog training is sitting close to the pups letting them get used to me. Along with her smelling the birds and the dog food, Annie was rewarded for using her nose over 20 times.

Annie finding dog food in the grass.

Annie is 78 days old and has been exposed to a lot of pigeons. I started her at about 8 weeks old with lock wing birds. After she got too aggressive with them, I started putting them to sleep so they could escape her, but she could still think she was going to catch them. She’s now bird crazy. That’s what I wanted.

Now a little on Bodie. I had to have a toe removed from his right front paw. I think sometime when he jumped onto his house he had got the toe hung in the chain link fence. The toe stuck straight up. All during the season last year it would be bloody at the end of the day. I thought during the off season it should be removed.

The vet removed it and I kept him in the basement, in a small cage, for several days then moved him to a raised pen. After the stitches were out, I returned him to his kennel. In a couple of days, he was limping on his good front leg. I think when he jumped off his house he was not using the sore foot. All of his weight on the good leg made it sore. I put him back in the raised pen. In a couple of days he was fine. I turned him out to run a couple of times a day. No limping.

Bodie pointing a pigeon.

After about 10 days I put him back in his kennel. In 2 days, he was limping again. So last night I did what I should have done in the first place. I fixed his house where he can’t jump onto it. I like having the houses where the dogs can jump onto them. I don’t have to bend to put collars on or when I medicate them but it’s going to be a long time before Bodie will be ready for this.

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Some Off Season Dog And Kennel Maintenance

Posted on April 28, 2024 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

Last season I loaned Bodie to a friend that was dogless for the season. Bodie is young and needed to be into birds. Vince got him into a lot. And Bodie learned a lot and became a good bird dog. But he had, at some time or other, broken a toe. The toe stuck straight up. All season, after the first few days, the toe would be sore and bleed. Bodie never acted like it hurt him but sooner or later he would get an infection or because of the pain quit hitting the tough cover. I talked to my vet about removing the toe.

Bodie pointing a pigeon.

Bodie honoring the backing dog.

Bodie pointing a covey.

After the toe was removed I kept Bodie in the basement in a wire cage. I had to take him out several times a day and make sure the wrap didn’t get wet or contaminated in any way. The bandage, the vet put on, only stayed over night and I had to re-wrap it every day and sometimes more often. I have a raised kennel that I keep puppies in sometime. After 5 days I put Bodie in the raised pen where he could have some room to move around without getting the wound dirty. When I took him back to get the stitches out the vet, to my complaint about Bodie not leaving the bandage on, said, “Dogs shouldn’t have operations. No matter what they will take the stitches out”.

But when the stitches came out the vet was mildly surprised at how good he looked. I asked about how long before he was able to run and he said anytime. I put Bodie back in his regular kennel. I watched his wound, checking it each day. Bodie probably broke the toe jumping onto his house, which is inside his kennel, and getting the toe hung in the chain link. After a few days Bodie was limping on his good leg. I think he was jumping on and off of his house and favoring the leg that had been operated on. In a day or so he was limping on both front legs.

I knew I had to do something. I put him back in the raised pen to keep him from jumping off his house. I let him run today for the first time after two days in the raised pen. He ran fine, with no limps, for a little while then started limping again. He is a lot better than before and I will keep him in the raised pen for another week or so. I will let him run every day for a few minutes and even when he doesn’t limp I will not put him back in his regular kennel until I’m sure he’s well.

Some of maintenance of the kennel is replacing dogs. Or at least starting some more puppies. My cousin, Jim Smith, bought a female pup off me several years ago. She became a first rate bird dog and some people are calling her a blue hen. Blue hen refers to most of her pups, no matter the sire, make good bird dogs. She is Mann’s mother and he is one of the best bird dogs I’ve ever owned. Jim had another litter this spring and I bought a female from him out of Mann’s mother but a different sire.

Annie playing with a pigeon.

Neither Jim nor I field trial much. Both of us have a few times but not enough to understand all of the nuances. Jim had a couple of 10 months old pups entered in a walking field trial in north east Oklahoma. Since my pup, Annie, was almost 8 weeks old and the field trial was about half way between my house and his I met him at the field trial. I got there in time to watch him run the first pup and I rode in the dog wagon. He finished with his second pup about 12:30.

I played with Annie and almost everyone that walked by needed to pet her. Jim and I talked for a while and were close to where the judges and participants were eating lunch. We started back toward the trucks and I was getting ready to leave. One of the guys said they are going to give the placements in the amateur derby. Jim, at 83 years old, with two 10 month old pups had won first and second in the amateur walking derby. These two were half brother and sister to my puppy. Same mother different sire.

So now I have this almost 10 week old puppy to play with. My plan is to write a post each week telling what we have been doing toward getting her trained as a bird dog.

Annie with a pigeon.

So far, since she has been here, I’ve been socializing her. She had never worn a collar and I put one on her. She scratched at it for a while then accepted it. I’ve not worked her on any commands except “here”. She comes fairly well. I have locked the wings on a pigeon and let her play with it. The first time she did a lot of barking and would run at the pigeon without touching it. Then she finally pulled it around a little by the feathers. I took it from her and let it fly. She liked that.

The second time I locked the wings on the pigeon Annie didn’t even slow down. She ran full tilt and pounced on the pigeon. She was so aggressive that I turned the pigeon loose. A little later I put a pigeon to sleep close to the kennels. Annie was running around and smelled the pigeon. She went right to it, it woke up and flew away. Annie chased a short distance.

Annie finding dog food in the grass.

Most days I walk Annie to the back of my property. She sometimes is ahead of me and sometimes behind. I have left 3 strips of grass to grow without mowing it. They are only 3 to 5 feet wide but real long. Two different times I have taken a bag of birds with us and hid one in the grass. The first time or two I had to let her stumble over the birds but after that I can see her use her nose. She will smell the pigeon and start trying to find it. Young puppies have to learn to use the nose just like anything else.

A lot of times I sit and watch Annie play. Usually, close to where my chair is I spread dog food in the grass. Not her regular food but the food I feed the grown dogs. Another thing to help her learn to use her nose.

I have put out 6 pigeons for her and after the first two she usually will flash point, then move a little closer to find the bird. The bird flies away. I will do this for a while before putting the pigeons in the release traps. I really enjoy watching the young dogs learn.

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New Way Of Training My Dogs

Posted on April 2, 2024 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

As I get older it gets harder to cover the ground that I need to in order for the dogs to get enough exercise in a day. When I first started hunting it was nothing to cover 12 or more miles in a day. Now as I approach 80 years old it’s way harder. I can still get 5 to 7 miles in on a good day, sometimes more. Around home, when I’m training, I often use my 4-wheeler. But with the 4-wheeler, only one person can comfortably ride.

The new ride.

Abby honoring Sally.

Boss on point.

Well, hopefully, I solved some of my problems by buying a Can Am Commander Max XTP. It will haul 4 people and will follow the dogs on most of the places I hunt. I can only use it on private land but I will at least be able to get the dogs into better shape.

Vince Dye and I took the “buggy” and all 5 dogs, Abby, Sally, Boss, Bodie and Mann, to some private land in Northern Missouri. The temperature was about 23 degrees with a strong north wind. We put the e-collars and GPS collars on all 5 dogs and turned them loose. Other than the 4-wheeler these dogs had never been run in this manner.

It made no difference to Mann. Before I got the collars on all 5 dogs he had gone hunting. Sally and Abby went in front of the buggy but kept looking for me. Bodie was hunting in the opposite direction from Mann and Boss was following about 15 yards behind the buggy. Vince was watching the dogs on the GPS handheld and in just a few minutes it showed Mann on point, ahead of us about 200 yards.

I started to him through the thick, tall CRP. I was watching closely to keep from running over a dog. Boss was still following the buggy. I must have got too close to Mann. Vince said, “three quail just flew over the top of us.” I hadn’t seen them but I did see the dogs moving in front of us.

I stopped and waited to see if the dogs would come up with anything. Sally went on point across the draw from us and I drove across the dam of a small pond to get to her. Boss was still following. I saw Sally and I as I started to get out and go to her she started moving. Finally, Boss saw her and decided that he needed to be hunting. He got in front of the buggy and really started covering the ground. In approximately 5 minutes all of the dogs had figured out to stay in front of the buggy, except Bodie. He was about 600 yards in the other direction. I toned his e-collar.

Sally, Abby and Bodie honoring Boss.

Because we were in the buggy we were moving faster than the dogs were used to. Bodie started looking for me but wasn’t used to coming to the sound of the buggy. We went back down the other side of the draw and across to the fence row on the edge of the property. In the past we have found a covey in this area but not today. The dogs covered it well.

Bodie was still off a good way so we started toward him through some older CRP. The first CRP had a lot of wheat growing but this older CRP was mostly blue stem. The dogs got birdy and we had couple of flash points but we never saw any game birds. There may have been a pheasant or two running ahead of the dogs. As we came around the end Bodie got with us.

We went back into the newer CRP. This CRP is really thick in most places with huge heads of wheat growing. Back during the season there were at least 5 coveys using this 240 acres. The dogs use a lot of energy going through this. As we rode along in the buggy I told Vince that the dogs were getting tired. He said, “they aren’t in as good of shape as we are”.

Bodie honoring.

As we got close to the area where Mann had pointed on the first covey Boss went on point. When we got close I left the buggy and started to him. Before I got there I turned to look back and Abby, Sally and Bodie were behind me, honoring Boss. I took their picture and a couple of Boss. I kicked in front of Boss and nothing flushed. I released him and all of the dogs started trailing. Something had run out on us.

As we went on the other side of the draw Sally pointed with Abby honoring. Before I could get out she was moving. She and the other dogs trailed along the edge and one quail flushed well out in front of the dogs. With the strong wind and some wise quail they weren’t holding very well.

We went down the edge and when we got to a deep creek I wasn’t sure about crossing it in the buggy. Vince has one and has ridden in several states. He knows them really well. When I eased into the creek with the bank almost straight up in front of us, the buggy’s wheels were spinning. Vince told me to lock it in 4 wheel drive. Once I did it just walked up the bank without spinning a wheel. That’s my kind of vehicle. Later I took it to Arkansas and rode the trails for a weekend and learned it will go about anywhere you point it.

Bodie pointing a pigeon.

The dogs were getting tired so we worked our way back to the truck. Vince and I took the e-collars and GPS collars off the dogs and put them in their boxes. Then loaded the buggy on the trailer. We were about frozen by this time. In the buggy with the heater going we had no idea that is was this cold. We had run the dogs for 2 1/2 hours and weren’t even tired. What a way to run dogs.

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Off Season Dog Work

Posted on March 5, 2024 by windypointsj1s@aol.com

It’s hard to have anything to write about when all of the dogs in the kennel are older, trained dogs. I have worked the dogs a few times so we both can get some exercise. All five of the dogs honor real well and also hold their birds once they go on point but I worked them on both.

Bodie honoring the backing dog.

The backing dog with Boss honoring.

Boss honoring the backing dog.

I read an article about dogs jumping and getting excited when you’re getting ready to let them out of their pen. The guy that wrote it said the dogs were screaming, “LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT”. So I thought it was time to stop this. I started by just standing in front of the dogs pen until they calmed down and stood still. As I reached to open their gate if they moved I stepped back and waited. In just a few days they were standing still to be let out although a couple of them would jump until I got right in front of their gate.

After a few days I moved it up a notch. I waited on them to stand still and I said, “whoa” one time and opened their gate. When they are on “whoa” they are not supposed to move anything. I hold the gate wide open and let them stand for a few seconds then say, “okay”. They dash out the gate. But anything to reinforce whoa is a good thing.

I put a chain gang out and attached all 5 dogs, with e-collars set to the no-bark setting. I like to work all of the dogs on retrieving first. So I walked to Sally, stood until she stopped moving and put the GPS collar around her neck. I switched the e-collar to training mode and heeled her out in front of the other dogs.

I have a Dokken quail dummy that I throw for her and Mann. I throw the dummy 3 times for her and make her, when she returns to me with it, hold until I reach for the dummy. I have a hot dog, cut into about 20 pieces in my pocket. When I take the dummy I give her a piece of the hotdog. After the third time I give the hotdog treat to her I say, “whoa”, one time. I get on the 4-wheeler, start it, put it in gear then say, “okay”. That’s their cue to run loose and happy time for a few minutes.

Dogs on the chain gang.

After a couple of laps around the yard I put her back on the chain gang and got Mann out. We went through the same routine but Mann is a lot faster running the yard. Or picking up the Dokken retrieving dummy. He’s just fast. After a couple of laps around the yard I put him back on the chain gang.

Abby was next. I threw the Dokken quail dummy for her but she smelled of it but refused to pick it up. I will work on that later. I tossed her a tennis ball and she grabbed it in a dead run. She wants to drop the ball and get her treat but I will not give her the treat until she lets me take the ball from her. Food is a real motivator for her. I let her run for a couple of laps then put her on the chain gang.

Boss was ready to go. I heeled him out and threw the tennis ball for him. For a long time Boss would not take a chunk of hotdog from my hand. In fact I had never seen him take a bite of food even in his kennel. He would wait until I left to eat. Usually, the next morning his food pan was empty. On trips he would go as long as the trip was, without eating. The first day in Arizona I knew we would be away from home for 6 or 7 days. He couldn’t hunt if he went that long without food.

Mann pointing a pigeon.

So the first day, as I was leaving a hunting area, I saw a good place to chain the dogs individually. I stopped and fixed each dogs food which consisted of dry dog food, can dog food and water. I fed the others first and noticed when I set his food in front of him, he wasn’t interested. I went to him and held the food dish in front of him and he started eating. I set the dish on the ground and he quit. I got a cooler out of the truck to sit on and held his food pan. He emptied it.

I did this each day of the trip. And he did the same. As long as I was holding the pan he would eat. If I set it on the ground he quit eating. Since we got home he can’t wait to get back in the kennel to eat. It’s like I finally gave him permission to eat. I sent him with Justin Crook to Nebraska/South Dakota summer camp last year and Justin asked to send him home because he wouldn’t eat. Now it’s like he can’t wait.

Abby honoring the backing dog.

After Boss retrieved the tennis ball 3 times and took a chunk of hotdog each time I let him run a couple of laps around the yard then put him back on the chain gang.

Bodie was last. He doesn’t retrieve so I heeled him to the retrieving bench and he jumped on. I gave him a few chunks of hotdog as he walked around the bench then got a dowel retrieving dummy. I opened his mouth, placed the dowel behind his canine teeth, made sure his lips weren’t in the way and said, “hold” while I cupped my hands around his mouth. After a few seconds I said, “give” and took the dowel from him and gave him a chunk of hotdog. I like to work them for a while on hold and give before I start the trained retrieve.

Bodie gets more of the hotdog than the others right now. I heeled him back to the chain gang area and whoaed him. I got on the 4-wheeler, started it, put it in gear and after a few seconds said, “okay”. He wasted no time in getting to the back. He ran a couple of laps around the yard and I put him back on the chain gang.

Sally honoring the backing dog.

I got my popup backing dog out and hid it behind a clump of thick brush. I put one release trap with a pigeon in it in front of the backing dog. Sometimes, Sally wants to move in with me when she is honoring. Not always but this is the place to stop that. I heeled her to the back and whoaed her a couple of times on the way. I turned her loose and she was in a dead run when she came around the end of the brush and saw the backing dog. She locked up. I stroked her sides then walked ahead of her. She didn’t move even when I flushed the pigeon. I let her run then put her in her kennel.

Mann backs but sometimes he wants to get closer. I’ve never seen him flush a bird but he should stand wherever he sees the dog that he is backing. I heeled him part way to the bird grounds before turning him loose. He went behind a brush pile where I couldn’t see him but when I got around the brush pile he was honoring. I stroked his sides then walked in front of him kicking the ground. I flushed the pigeon and he never moved. I tapped his head and walked back to the kennel and put him up.

Boss pointing a pigeon.

Abby likes to honor but she loves to point more. I heeled her most of the way whoaing her a few times. The first 3 dogs all saw the backing dog at a different spot but stopped immediately. I stroked her sides then walked in front, kicking the cover. i flushed the pigeon and she chased. I haven’t worked the 3 younger dogs on being steady after the flush. That may happen this summer. I let her run while I walked to the kennel.

Boss and Bodie both are excellent at honoring. I worked them both then took them back to the kennel.

The next day I worked them the same way only I didn’t use the backing dog. I hid a pigeon in a release trap and worked them on pointing. It was kind of funny to watch all 5 dogs just knew we were going to do the backing dog. When they close to the area where I had the dog the day before they each slowed down and their head was on a pivot looking for thin dog. But they all handled the bird in the release trap well.

Bodie honoring the backing dog.

On the day that I worked them on the pigeon in the release traps, on the very first bird another bird joined it in the air. My first thought was, “alright, another pigeon”. The next second or two I knew. It was a hawk after my bird and it evidently got it. I started with 10 pigeons but now I only have 9. Although these have some babies I will probably buy some more just to have enough.

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