dogs in the off season

irish setter

Hi all i'm new on this and i've a quick question for ye. I'm trying to find a way of getting my setters some bird work in the off season to keep them ticking over. What i want to know is will a dog that has a few years done on pheasants/snipe point pigeons?? I have easy access to them and i won't be shooting them. Thanks in advance

stevoman

Im not too sure if you will get a dog to point pigeon as are very wary and will get up at the first sight or sound of you or your dog, but im open to correction of course.

If your near any mountains that have plenty of heather you could walk your dog up there after grouse. thats what i think im gonna do with my dog for the next 9 months.

Im interested to know what will other people be doing, or do they know any good techniques to keep you setter?pointer trained on the off season.

My pup is 7 months old and iv had her out with me for most of the season with me. she's setting song birds and the rest but i know she has been missing a lot of birds, definitly snipe and a few cocks she has missed. Of course i do realise that its all still fun for her at such a young age and i guess as far as she's concerned at the moment that she's just out having a good run with me and i have a funny thing in my hand that makes a banging noise. Hopefully i'l get a few cocks over her next november and it will crown her.

Banjax

I use a few dummys with pheasant/snipe/woodcock wings tied on, and use them for marked and blind retreives, after a while I'm sure there is no scent at all left but it also works with wood pigeon wings which are more available in the close-season.

That and a bit of annoying the wild birds keeps a dog sharp I think.

irish setter

Well i'll be using a technique called carding pigeons which is supposed to be as close as you can get to wild birds. First i'll trap the pigeon and tether a piece of cardboard 15'' by 8'' to one leg. All this does is limits its flight to about 70 yards. So you basicly throw it towards the cover you want it in (no trees) and bring the dog in after a short while. It is supposed to flush pretty natural and can be worked again after a rest. Works well training young dogs but don't know about older ones.

meathstevie

Get a pheasant somewhere from a breeder, put it in a bigish wire cage and there you go...

stevoman

meathstevie wrote: »

Get a pheasant somewhere from a breeder, put it in a bigish wire cage and there you go...

I donty really get you, keep the cock for the year so the dog gets the scent everyday?

meathstevie

That's exactly what a friend of mine does. Has a pheasant he keeps in a pen with the chickens and every once in a while he puts him in a wire mesh cage and hides him in some cover and takes out the dog. Seems to be working for him..

stevoman

meathstevie wrote: »

That's exactly what a friend of mine does. Has a pheasant he keeps in a pen with the chickens and every once in a while he puts him in a wire mesh cage and hides him in some cover and takes out the dog. Seems to be working for him..

thats not bad thinking stevie.
my pups manners are coming on fairly good at the moment.

foxshooter243

The real test that your dog is steady to game is if you can control him
in a pheseant pen full of birds-birds running round him tests him .

irish setter

If i had somewhere to keep a pheasant it would be ideal so that's why i'm looking for another way. I'll let ye know how i get on.

bunny shooter

I was advised by more mature and experienced game shooters than I to keep my Irish Setter and Lab. away from places where game is likely to breed during the breeding season as he/she will disturb nesting birds.

stevoman

bunny shooter wrote: »

I was advised by more mature and experienced game shooters than I to keep my Irish Setter and Lab. away from places where game is likely to breed during the breeding season as he/she will disturb nesting birds.

I have heard a hunting dog and ruin wild clutches alright.

Im thinking about hitting the sleive blooms at the weekends and work the heather with the pup. its all protected there so i bet theres plenty of wildlife and once i have no gun what harm can i do. i think theres grouse there too so its good practice for her

Wolfhillbilly

Irish Setter - if you can, get hold of a few quail. I used to use pigeons and used the same method you do but I found that it encouraged the dog to chase after the flush as he got to know that the bird was coming down again in a short time. They are great for training pups though. The quail do pretty much the same job although it is more natural as they can fly for a fair distance. I take my dogs to a mountain for training and 'plant' a few birds and then hunt the dog into them. I can then watch where the quail come down and and they are easy caught up again. Either way though an experienced dog will get bored if he is doing the same thing over and over again so I would repeat the exercise any more than once every 8-10 days.
It sounds as if you, like myself, are hampered by space but if you have access to to bit of ground and put a pen beside it, the quail will return to their pen. (If you watch Derry Argue's DVD, he has the perfect set-up).
I'm training a pup myself at the minute and will be doing a fair bit with her over the summer. Stevoman it sounds like you have a fair bit done with your pup. Mine is 12 months and hasn't seen a gun yet apart from the starting pistol. Is there plenty of grouse on the slieve blooms as there won't be many snipe about during the summer? I wouldn't want to be relying on grouse up north to train a dog, they are very few and far between and unless a young dog is running into game, it will do more harm than good. Bunny shooter makes a good point too - hunting during breeding season is poor form. I wouldn't take a dog near a mountain where there would be grouse from April to end of July.

Mellor

I would take hunting out of the above paragraph, nobody suggested that.

irish setter

Wolfhillbilly- think quail would be out for me also so i'm very limited in what i can do. My take on the dog chasing birds would be he needs more obedience work but i'm no expert. Does anyone teach their dog to drop on the flush? He cant chase what he cant see..

Banjax

If you can invest the time it takes to train a dog to a good standard then you should, dropping to flush/shot is very desirable, but it's only a part of the general training a dog should have. There shouldn't be any issue of your dog running in or being out of control, if that is the case then there is more work to be done.

I believe a dog must be able to hunt a natural scent. Situations vary and common sense should prevail in terms of nesting birds and the like.