Dogs nose

dodderangler

I was out this afternoon with My gwp x Viszla pup. She was sniffing around and picked up a trail. As we got closer about 40 yards away a fox got up and ran. The trail led straight to the area he was in. Must've been chilling in the sun. But anyway she worked up on the trail so can't argue with that.
Anyway moved onto another field and I spotted a young hen ( no tail on her) pheasant pecking away and she spotted me so she ran into a few square yards of nettles in open field so I thought perfect chance for her to set it.
She didn't pick up the scent not did she wen react when she rose up.
Any tips on that.? Was she just not interested?

deerhunter1

dodderangler wrote: »

I was out this afternoon with My gwp x Viszla pup. She was sniffing around and picked up a trail. As we got closer about 40 yards away a fox got up and ran. The trail led straight to the area he was in. Must've been chilling in the sun. But anyway she worked up on the trail so can't argue with that.
Anyway moved onto another field and I spotted a young hen ( no tail on her) pheasant pecking away and she spotted me so she ran into a few square yards of nettles in open field so I thought perfect chance for her to set it.
She didn't pick up the scent not did she wen react when she rose up.
Any tips on that.? Was she just not interested?

Maybe the fox scent was stronger and still clogging his nostrils or the young bird had not emitted enough scent

LetFly

Was the wind blowing towards the dog when you walked up on the pheasants location? More importantly was the wind at the dogs level blowing towards the dog. Different topography on the land can have the wind at different levels blowing in slightly different ways.
If the dog wasn't down wind of the pheasant she would have no hope of picking up on the scent. Just something to consider. I would give her the benefit of the doubt unless you are 100% sure she had the opportunity to wind the bird.

dodderangler

LetFly wrote: »

Was the wind blowing towards the dog when you walked up on the pheasants location? More importantly was the wind at the dogs level blowing towards the dog. Different topography on the land can have the wind at different levels blowing in slightly different ways.
If the dog wasn't down wind of the pheasant she would have no hope of picking up on the scent. Just something to consider. I would give her the benefit of the doubt unless you are 100% sure she had the opportunity to wind the bird.

I never even thought of that. (Shows my lack of experience there) I didn't notice any wind up there at all. But I never took that into account. Cheers for that mate.

Lastin

Even the best dogs will bump the odd bird just inexperience maybe. Get her out and running as often as possible between now and the opening day.

Vizzy

If I remember rightly your dog is still very young.
My Vizsla was doing something similar for the first 18 months.He would miss birds or more particularly show no great interest then 5 minutes later he would lock solid on a bird.
Give the dog time , they are notoriously slow to settle.

TriggerPL

Vizzy wrote: »

If I remember rightly your dog is still very young.
My Vizsla was doing something similar for the first 18 months.He would miss birds or more particularly show no great interest then 5 minutes later he would lock solid on a bird.
Give the dog time , they are notoriously slow to settle.

I was just going to say I wouldn't panic she a young dog and the fox would have thrown her off big time if it the first one she scented ,

With pointing dogs all the training in the world won't make up for actually shooting a few birds for the dog . Ul find with a few birds and lots of praise she be a different dog next year .