With the mornings being in the sixties, I have been working puppies along with Abby and Boss each morning. Now I only have one puppy to work. I sold Gabe Wednesday morning. I have 6 runs in my kennels and the two puppies had to be in the same run. Buck, the one I renamed Bodie, was more aggressive than Gabe. They needed to be separated so I sold Gabe. I thought that Bodie would be harder to handle but also I thought he would run bigger than Gabe. When I work him on pigeons he gets ahead me by about 40 yards at 14 weeks old. I think he will be a big runner. I like that and a lot of people like closer working dogs.
Bodie pointing a pigeon.
The pigeon close to the release trap.
Abby pointing a pigeon in a tree.
Since Gabe is not here I have been putting 4 pigeons out for Bodie. On mornings, I’m going to work him, I put him on a stake out while I clean pens. That keeps him cleaner for photos. Abby likes to roll him in the dirt or preferably mud when they are turned loose together. That makes for a dirty dog picture.
After cleaning pens and putting the other dogs back in their runs I turn Bodie loose. We walk down close to the training grounds and I put him on a chain gang. Between the time he spends on the stake and the time on the chain gang he learns to give to the lead. When he gets a little bigger I will work him on heel and whoa.
I catch his 4 pigeons and hide them on the training grounds. Sometimes I put 2 birds on my side and 2 on my neighbor’s side but sometimes only one or none on one side or the other. I, also, try to find new places each time to hide the birds. That gets harder each day. There is a limited amount of places to hide the birds and this week I have worked Bodie on 21 pigeons. That is 21 different places to hide birds, so soon I will have to repeat some of the places.
Bodie just turned 14 weeks old Wednesday and he is smart enough to remember and check most of the places where he’s found a bird in the past, as he goes by them. Dogs remember spots. That’s the reason picking a dog up and setting him back works. He knows the spot he was in. Putting him back reminds him that he shouldn’t have moved.
Saturday when I worked Bodie on his birds he pointed the first one for a few seconds but the next two he turned and headed straight for them. All 3 of these birds, I flushed when he moved toward them. The fourth bird he smelled from a good distance and pointed. I was about 40 yards behind him when he went on point and I cut the distance in half before I stopped. I just waited, without saying anything, until he moved. Maybe a full minute. At his first movement I flushed the pigeon.
This was a young bird and it tried to light in the tree right above it but it missed the limb. I couldn’t see the bird after it tried to light the first time but I could hear it. It tried to light 3 or 4 times but finally lit on the ground close to the trap. Gabe had caught a pigeon that did the same thing a few days before. Bodie had run toward the release trap when I flushed the pigeon. Now when he saw the bird on the ground he pointed again. I just stood and watched.
Boss with a pigeon asleep in front of him.
It was a stand off. The pigeon was watching Bodie and he was pointing the pigeon. Neither moved for about 30 seconds then the pigeon tried to walk a way. Bodie wasn’t going to allow that. He was after it. It finally flew away. But that was really good for him.
He’s a little shy around the 4-wheeler and I’m going to need to follow him on it when he gets a little older. So I have him follow as I ride it to pick up the release traps. That only works for a short distance, so far. He follows for a while then goes back to the kennel area. He should get over this.
When I put him in his kennel I decided to see if he would try to retrieve. For this I start them with a paint roller cover. They are light, cheap and puppies seem to like them. I went into his run and tossed the roller cover to the other end of the run. He ran to it, grabbed it and tried to get by me to go in his house. I petted him until he dropped it. I tossed it again. This time he didn’t try to come toward me. As he played with the roller cover the end went under the fence separating him from Abby, his mother. Abby pulled the cover to her side and jumped onto her house.
Boss pointing a pigeon.
I had done this with her when she was a puppy but hadn’t kept going with it. I went over to her side and she gave me the roller cover. I tossed it for her and she grabbed it and jumped onto her house. Before I could reach for the roller cover she dropped it. I tossed it again. Abby retrieved again. I may start working with her each day on retrieving.
I have been working Abby and Boss on heel, whoa and being steady on a bird they can see. I heel them to my front yard across the front then back toward the training grounds. I whoa them occasionally as we walk along. I have 3 pigeons in a bird bag on my shoulder. I put them each on whoa and put a pigeon to sleep on the ground about 3 feet in front of them. This is one of the few times I brush their tails up. I stroke their sides, brush their tails up and tell them what a good dog they are.
I walk around the pigeon kicking the cover. I go back and stroke them some more telling them what good dogs they are. I hold the piggin’ string while I wake the pigeon with my foot by turning it over. Some of these pigeons are young birds that when I roll them over just walk around or just stand and watch the dog. That is good for the training we are doing. Before they can walk too far I throw my hat at them. Then they fly. A few don’t go very far but the dog has to stand.
Friday and Saturday, for Abby and Boss both, I hid a pigeon behind a stump in a release trap. I heeled them close to the stump, whoaed them and put a pigeon to sleep on the east side of the stump. The pigeon in the release trap was on the west side where they couldn’t see it and the wind was wrong for them to smell it. I walked around the pigeon I had put to sleep, came back and stroked them then flushed the pigeon from the release trap.
Abby with a pigeon asleep in front of her.
The Dogtra release traps are very quiet. For me, it was like the pigeon just flushed off the ground. Both dogs reared back but didn’t try to chase. After just a couple of seconds their attention was back on the pigeon that was asleep in front of them. This really makes the dogs understand that if the bird they are pointing doesn’t move they don’t move. I walked around the pigeon again before rolling it over. After it flew away I walked in front of them again kicking the grass.
I have worked Boss and Abby a lot on heel and whoa. I walked them around the yard for several weeks heeling and whoaing them every few feet. Then we spent about a month on the whoa post. The knew what whoa meant before we started doing this exercise. Are they perfect? No. But they do pretty well. Because of all the work before they will get this pretty quickly. Next week I will incorporate a blank pistol into the exercise.
Boss pointing a pigeon.
Right now I’m holding the piggin’ string when I flush the pigeon. I don’t think either dog has ever tried to move. When I shoot the blank pistol I want to be farther from them so I will try a couple of days of being out front of the dogs when I flush the bird. If they don’t chase I will start shooting the blank pistol and saying, “whoa”. Usually, the dogs anticipate the whoa coming after I shoot. They get to where if they are running and I shoot they will stop. It’s just like when I yell, “whoa”.
I have never expected perfection on their whoaing on the sound of the blank pistol but if I field trialed I would absolutely work on this. Just another whoa command without having to say anything.