To keen

elius

As some of you will know i picked a German Short haired pointer off done deal last November for free. Initially when i got here shes was useless. After a couple of weeks hard work with Pheasant wings hidden pigeons and alike she actually started to show an interest in hunting and buy January she was flying and between the cold snap and the end of January she had put up countless pheasants snipe woodcock. Anyway its gone down hill since then. She hunts and sets on everything from black birds to wag tails even today she mad a b-line for a hare she spooked in a ditch and went a field over to chasing it (hare one). Am i being to fussy in thinking that a dog should only set on game and shouldn't pay any attention to song birds. Due to her past I'm a little reluctant to punish her and am thinking best leave her alone. Or should i nip it in the but now.
Any though advice welcome..
Cheers

irish setter

don't punish her yet. have you shot birds over her that she has pointed? the only way she will learn is by having the birds she has pointed properly shot and praise given. your best bet might be to not take her out on game till next season till you can shoot them. if out for walks and she is pointing things you don't want her to just walk on and ignore her. any punishment now and no reward by shooting birds you'll cause her to blink birds

elius

irish setter wrote: »

don't punish her yet. have you shot birds over her that she has pointed? the only way she will learn is by having the birds she has pointed properly shot and praise given. your best bet might be to not take her out on game till next season till you can shoot them. if out for walks and she is pointing things you don't want her to just walk on and ignore her. any punishment now and no reward by shooting birds you'll cause her to blink birds

I'm living out the country and its hard not to bring her for a ramble through the fields i will say that if its a pheasant she will go into cover and flush.. Where as if its a black bird they don't tend to stay still long enough. I'm just a tad reluctant to stop her hunting given her past troubles..She has really come good though.

greenpeter

Where did you get the pigeons elius? would like to try my lad on them in the future. Thanks

SpringerF

Many are the people who would love a dog to be too keen.
If it was me, I would would just smile at her pointing a song bird and walk on calling her.

She will very soon learn to ignore the song birds once she has fully learnt the scent of game, often takes more than one season. I dont regard any of my dogs as being fully fit for duty until their third season or so. a dog learns a huge amount his/herself, we really just guide them in the right direction

Patience and understanding is the key to training a dog.

elius

SpringerF wrote: »

Many are the people who would love a dog to be too keen.
If it was me, I would would just smile at her pointing a song bird and walk on calling her.

She will very soon learn to ignore the song birds once she has fully learnt the scent of game, often takes more than one season. I dont regard any of my dogs as being fully fit for duty until their third season or so. a dog learns a huge amount his/herself, we really just guide them in the right direction

Patience and understanding is the key to training a dog.

Thats what i usually do. Maybe i'm being over critical. Shes still flushing pheasants so thats the main thing.

EPointer=Birdss

Again Irish Setter took the words from my mouth.
I woudn't be inclined to have her in the field too much this time of year anyway because birds are breeding & she could catch one.
Don't worry about the song birds just ignore it & keep walking calling her along.
I don't shoot snipe as thousands of the yokes around here in season & dogs be setting every 2 minutes. He pointed em when young but I just ignore it & drive him on. Now he'll put em up for the amusement whiles looking for pheasants. When on pheasants it's all business & I try & drop every one for him.
If you're meeting birds now & not shooting obviously she's getting confused & your undoing all the earlier work. This won't encourage her to stop flushing like.
Leave her in unless your able to shoot for her or bring her places with no game for exercise.
As for the hare, man you can't allow her to be chasing fields away. Nip that in the bud ASAP.

Good luck
EP

elius

EPointer=Birdss wrote: »

Again Irish Setter took the words from my mouth.
I woudn't be inclined to have her in the field too much this time of year anyway because birds are breeding & she could catch one.
Don't worry about the song birds just ignore it & keep walking calling her along.
I don't shoot snipe as thousands of the yokes around here in season & dogs be setting every 2 minutes. He pointed em when young but I just ignore it & drive him on. Now he'll put em up for the amusement whiles looking for pheasants. When on pheasants it's all business & I try & drop every one for him.
If you're meeting birds now & not shooting obviously she's getting confused & your undoing all the earlier work. This won't encourage her to stop flushing like.
Leave her in unless your able to shoot for her or bring her places with no game for exercise.
As for the hare, man you can't allow her to be chasing fields away. Nip that in the bud ASAP.

Good luck
EP

Yey i'm pretty disappointed with the hare issue for me it was very uncharacteristic of her to ignore my command to stop which she is usually spot on with though having said that when she came back she new she did wrong. Im living out in the country side but on a rather busy road. The misses uses the car for work so the daily ramble is a popular choice for me and her the road is just to dangerous to walk on:( .... I'm blessed buy the fact that the area isn't over populated with pheasants in fact there's very little a couple of rough birds here and there. And i only have permission to walk the fields anyway. As for the snipe i'm the same as yourself E=pointer im not bothered shooting them as i would need 10 off them to get in anyway a feed.:D thanks for all the tips lads most appreciated.

EPointer=Birdss

elius wrote: »

Yey i'm pretty disappointed with the hare issue for me it was very uncharacteristic of her to ignore my command to stop which she is usually spot on with though having said that when she came back she new she did wrong. Im living out in the country side but on a rather busy road. The misses uses the car for work so the daily ramble is a popular choice for me and her the road is just to dangerous to walk on:( .... I'm blessed buy the fact that the area isn't over populated with pheasants in fact there's very little a couple of rough birds here and there. And i only have permission to walk the fields anyway. As for the snipe i'm the same as yourself E=pointer im not bothered shooting them as i would need 10 off them to get in anyway a feed.:D thanks for all the tips lads most appreciated.

Don't get too down about the whole thing anyway mate.
Chin up.
Back to basics & plenty of off season to read & learn for next November:cool:.

deeksofdoom

EPointer=Birdss wrote: »

Don't get too down about the whole thing anyway mate.
Chin up.
Back to basics & plenty of off season to read & learn for next November:cool:.

As EPointer=Birdss has already said you need to go back to basics now that you know she can hunt. It would be worth spending the evenings getting your yard work down to a tee.

When I say yard work I mean, walking to heal, sitting, stopping and most important the recall.

If you can't get the dog to come back to you then you are really in trouble. the recall should be instilled in the dog before you do any field work.

Remember being consistent with your commands at this stage is the key, don't let her get away with anything. If there is the potential to meet a hare somewhere on one of your walks, then don't bring her on that route.

If the dog looks like she is going to disobey a command then don't give it to her, what i mean is if you give her a recall or a stop command and she ignores you and gets away with it she now knows that she's tried that before and has gotten away with it.

The basics will only take 15 minutes a night just working on the one command, you will see a difference in the dog in a week.

elius

Ill get stuck back to basic this week.

Earlier while inspecting her for thorns and alike i came across a ball in her nipple turns out its a pellet from a shot gun :eek::eek: No wonder she went off hunting after being shot. Bringing her to the vets on monday for a look over. i can see the doller signs :rolleyes:

deeksofdoom

elius wrote: »

Ill get stuck back to basic this week.

Earlier while inspecting her for thorns and alike i came across a ball in her nipple turns out its a pellet from a shot gun :eek::eek: No wonder the poor so and so went off hunting after being shot. Bringing her to the vets on monday for a look over. i can see the doller signs :rolleyes:

WTF are you talking about?

elius

elius wrote: »

Ill get stuck back to basic this week.

Earlier while inspecting her for thorns and alike i came across a ball in her nipple turns out its a pellet from a shot gun :eek::eek: No wonder the poor so and so went off hunting after being shot. Bringing her to the vets on monday for a look over. i can see the doller signs :rolleyes:

I'd be more worried about how it got in her nipple, rather than the dollar signs.

elius

@dojojoe I haven't a notion of how it got in her nipple. I for one never shot close enough to her for a stray pellet(s) to get stuck in her so obviously the previous owner must have shot close to her proximity.


The doller signs ment to say vets ant cheap more so when a dog has pellets stuck in her? Last time i got are dog xrayed it was €700 :eek:

dicky82

most of you probably already have this done but if you insure your dog with pet plan by allianz it makes the vets bills very managable. iv done it for ten years on a variety of breeds and i swear by it. also when one of my dogs died they refunded me the cost of the dog. . .(not that that made it any easier). they also cover you for public liability.

ps i dont work for allianz. :rolleyes:

All my dogs are insured too. They don't cover reproduction though. X-Rays are covered though.

elius

dicky82 wrote: »

most of you probably already have this done but if you insure your dog with pet plan by allianz it makes the vets bills very managable. iv done it for ten years on a variety of breeds and i swear by it. also when one of my dogs died they refunded me the cost of the dog. . .(not that that made it any easier). they also cover you for public liability.

ps i dont work for allianz. :rolleyes:

Have insured but my practice you now have to pay the fees before you get refunded. Hoping its just the one..