First bird

[Dahitman44]

I finally got my pup out in the field and he kicked up his first bird on Saturday. He was out about 20 yards ahead of me and got a scent and picked up speed about 10 yards ahead of him a hen got up. Put the bead on her for practice and poor Copper looked at me like, "hey pal I got it up now shoot the darn thing."

We walked about five miles and that was all we saw. He hit on some big-time scent but not much for birds. That is not surprising, in my area. It was fun for both of us.

About four miles into it Copper got a little tired and bored we stopped once in a while, but I think he was getting bored. So was I. I think he could tell.

Any advice to still keep them going when they are pups?

I was impressed by his training. He took off to the water edge and I was afraid of him falling through the ice so I yelled Copper -- HEAL!

And it was like a hand pulled on his lease and he hit the breaks HARD.

Very impressed with that.

[gundoglily]

Buy a membership at your local shooting preserve. That way you know for sure that there are birds in the area where you are hunting. Most offer "scratch" hunting to their members, so that helps keep the costs down. The difference between a good dog, a great dog and and an excellent hunting dog are the number of birds that the dog sees, in other words, practice..practice..practice. A shooting preserve will extend your hunting season.

[KOTTKE]

With both of my labs I've used pigeons for early training. Any farmer will be happy to let you catch a few of these. I took my pups to a small grassy area and removed the wing feather from the pigeons and let them run around for a while. Turn the dog loose and you can watch them work the scent. The only thing with live birds and young dogs is you have to teach them quickly to release the birds to you, or they tend to get a hard mouth. Works great on open water also, by removing the wing feathers these pigeons flap on the water making it easier for a young dog to mark befor making a retrieve.

[Powerstroke]

Always bring a couple retrieving dummies with you. If you're having a slow day you can toss one of them out to keep him interested. This is the game he learned on and you can get him going again by tossing out his toys.

[LovenLifeGuy]

I have a 7 month old and he is doing great. I did exactly what powerstroke said. I brought a couple bumpers with and if we went a bit without him getting birdy I would just drop one or throw it where he could not see and have him find them. He seemed to gain a lot of confidence doing this since he did not see me place them. Good luck!

We are heading to South dakota on thursday. Cant wait!

LovenLifeGuy

[broken line]

I'll second the shooting preserve membership idea. When my yellow was a pup, I joined a club for her first year, and scratch hunted at least twice a week. Now, at 6 years old, she hunts very well, and more importantly, I have a great deal of confidence in her.

[Dahitman44]

Question --

Will bringing out the toy hurt his interest in hunting? Make him just want the toy?

[Powerstroke]

I'm sure he's always gonna prefer the live birds over a dummy, but its more about keeping his interest than distracting him from the hunt.

[duckbuster]

The more birds you get the dog over the better hunter he will become.

Birds, birds and more birds that is what will be most effective in making the best hunting dog for you.

[LovenLifeGuy]

I know when birds are involved my pup goes into a whole different gear. I love to see that! I used the bumper to keep his confidence up. Not sure if it was the right thing to do but it seemed to work ok.

LovenLifeGuy

[rundrave]

how about using a dokken? It would be the best of both worlds, a bird and a dummy. Put a little scent on it and your set.

[JDM]

If it was my dog, I would not bring any bumpers. You want the dog to hunt and look for birds, not retrieve dummies. It sounds to me like you had a good first outing. The pheasant preserve is a great idea for young dogs. It has worked very well with my dogs. You are trying to get them excited about finding birds. If you shoot it and they get to retrieve it, that is a bonus for the dog. If you can swing it, a trip to an area with plenty of birds is also a great idea. At your dog's age, he is learning what to do, what to look for, and what you want from him. It may not seem like much, but it is. All dogs learn at different speeds, so you may need to be patient. With young dogs, you may have to keep each session shorter and move from place to place to keep his enthusiasm up. You can also get him more excited with your own gestures, voice inflections, etc...

As a side note - I have an area behind my home that cannot be hunted but has at least 2 dozen pheasants. As a pup, my dog must have flushed those birds a hundred times before he ever hunted in front of a gun. He is a pheasant hunting machine now and knows that his job is to find them. I think he gets more pleasure from the flush anything else. Frequently, he will catch birds himself.

[Dahitman44]

Good point.

Still not sure about the dummy. maybe I am the Dummy?

[Lucky One]

I also have a young dog that is out in the field for the first time this year. I sent him to training with an excellent trainer (Tim at TKO Retrievers in Clearwater, MN). He is performing very well and is very obedient. He retrieved 9 birds at the game farm last week! How can I post pictures in this forum? I have some good pictures of him to post.

[Dahitman44]

That would be cool -- please post.

[Dbl]

Lucky One,

Take a look at the top of the photo sharing forum on the main page, very simple instructions on how to post photos to the forum.

[Lucky One]

Here is a picture of my 7 month old yellow lab (Kirby). I have had him out on private, public and game farms and he has been very good! He was trained by Tim at TKO Retrievers in Clearwater. Still has to gain some experience from just being out there, but I am very happy with his progress so far.

[Dahitman44]

Looks like a good pup!

[gonefishin11]

This year is my pup's first year hunting as well and she just turned 1 yesterday. To date, my hunting partners and I have shot 92 roosters over her. I go to school at NDSU so I get out to ND at least 3 times a week. She has been absolutely awesome so far this year and is only improving. The only problem is that she tends to chase running birds and flush them 100 or 200 yards ahead but most of the time she flushes them in range.

Here is a pic of Bailey and myself with a three-man ND limit:

[Dahitman44]

GF --

Really nice birds. Someday I hope to get to ND so I can see birds as well.