Gun Dog Forum

www.higginsgundogs.com

He has a youtube channel as well, HigginsGundogs.

You don't have to use an e-collar if you don't want to. But to make your life easier, select a dog from a breeding program where the breeder trains their dogs to be steady without them. If the breeder is successful at training dogs from their breeding program to be steady in a way that you envision ...

My opinion is that sending a dog to a trainer is unfair unless an owner has a chance to see the trainer in person and the trainer has an open door policy for the owner to stop in to watch or participate in the training any time. The owner needs training as much as the dog does (sometimes more!) A lo...

Hello Roe90, There is no way to make a dog like being locked in a kennel box for 8+ hours a day. She has associated you and the kennel box with abandonment and long hours of being uncomfortable. Any way you could create a dog yard outside and get her a buddy? I agree. I can't think of a way to make...

When to 'break' depends largely upon the method of training you plan to use. Others above mention that 11 months is too early in their opinion. For many dogs this is true with conventional (Whoa and Force based training) training. But there are other methods out there where a dog (even super soft or...

Don't be discouraged or give up on this pup. Many of us have seen numerous pups who were not interested in their first birds but developed into very stylish and driven adult gundogs. This is more common in some breeds/pedigrees than others. There are some things you can do to keep your pup going in ...

Some individuals and some breeds just take longer. Sometimes the drive doesn't kick into gear as early as it does for some other breeds or individuals. It's important that care is taken with these types to introduce birds in a way that the right associations are made. A wing clipped pigeon, for exam...

Hi,

A book that you may not have seen but may be of use with your Spaniel is, Gun Dogs: Their Learning Chain. Joe begins his book with some advice on how to work with the Spaniel pup. You can find copies on Amazon.

Best of luck,

Katy

Birds are good but I know of no professional trainer that doesn't use pigeons or some kind of bird during training that are normally used in a launcher though there are other ways. Lol, he isn't a professional trainer but he does have access to land and wild birds. Many professional trainers would ...

I see no reason not to use the wild birds if you have them. Take the pup out and find them. It will learn to point and learn to find birds. If the pup isnt pointing after a while then you will need training birds to help and show the pup what you want it to do. You may have a dog that will naturall...

Hi, You have access to wild birds and it isn't hard to get really nice BobWhite in covey pacs from outfits like those north of you in OK. That's great and it's cool that you will be able to hunt regularly with your dog without distance or availability as a hurdle. As mentioned, a lot of people train...

Thanks for the feedback. That young dog was very responsive to you. Great to see. Thanks for that. It's so cool to see a young, green dog get into a completely new situation and be responsive (to cautioning) as you say. Once he has seen running birds a time or two more, there will be no need to hel...

Very interesting. Certainly the way to do it with that terrain. I assume the bird just decided to flush . Would you have continued on with the pursuit until the bird flushed? Hi Sharon, Yes, the dog managed this bird until the bird knew that running wasn't working. The bird then tried a different o...

Yes those are most certainly wild birds. The birds are grouse and they have never been successfully reared in captivity . Billy Steele (the elder) used to be a grouse moor keeper and he did once manage to take grouse eggs and hatch them then rear the chicks in a pen for a short while but he told me...

We don't have horseback trials here but we do have field trial dogs and "ordinary" shooting dogs. Quite often the ordinary shooting dogs are dogs that have been sold as having not enough range and pace by field trailers to blokes that just go shooting. The dogs used by "ordinary shooting men" are u...

If you took a dog that was entered in the National Championship, and bird hunted him from foot in West Tennessee for a few weeks, he would begin to dig in to the woods and thickets and find every bird available also. I know nothing about the two 'meat dogs' that they used for their experiment, but ...

Ms. Cage wrote:I like the article. After 26 yrs. of filming the man should have formed an opinion. Some might not like his opinion. Spend 26 yrs filming and studying then come up with your own opinion. Do some trial dogs simply out run their nose?

Can't disagree with this.

You guys are really good at taking little bits of offending text and attacking it without addressing the whole statement and without considering the overall context. I can't see anywhere where Brad states that FT or American bred dogs can't find birds or be hunted over. He states that these dogs are...

Yuma , you say you have a 5 months old lab pup that you want to work as a hunter and a retriever ? That is easily done without using F.F. . For info on how to train for this I suggest you buy a couple of British gundog book or videos but not on lab training . Buy the info about spaniel training and...

Haha Whatsnext, I work with Higgins a bit. Come on out to visit some time! Be glad to take you out to visit the guzzlers and chukar in our "backyard" (BLM and state wildlife areas, over 40,000 acres)...or maybe you prefer Valley Quail? Plenty of wild birds to hunt here. :wink: I'd be curious to see ...