Concerned....?

[MI-Man]

Put my 12 month old GSP on birds today. She locked up well each time she came within 5 to 10 yards of the bird, held a good point. Concern I have is, when the bird took flight and I held her back on a check cord (so she wouldn't chase) she barked in excitement as the birds flew off.....should I be concerned???

[mlittle]

The dog likes birds. That would not concern me. I would be concerned if the dog never smelled the birds or didn;t care about them. If the dog has drive, you can work through everything else.
How much have you had her on birds? Not sure I would hold her off of them when they flush if she has not had much experience on birds. A desire to chase is not bad.

[Sharon]

Check your PMs

[MI-Man]

PMs.......??

[Sharon]

Alerts for private messages appear in the top left hand corner of your main page.

In a nutshell: You don't want to be restraining that dog yet. He needs to chase to learn he can't catch the birds. When he starts to get the message and starts to hesitate /creep then it is time for the check cord and no more chasing. If you don't let him learn about chasing on his own you may not be able to trust him when he's out on point, out of your sight. You don't want to be the only reason he holds .

He's an older dog so make sure he has enough space to chase safely- not near roads etc.

[MI-Man]

Thanks...new to site, sorry!

[MI-Man]

I put her on birds at 6 months (quail) just to see how she would react, she held a solid point and did chase in excitment after I flushed the bird. Also, got her on some birds at 9 months (quail - again) with a buddy one day, the same results. We do have some wild pheasants on our farm and she has bumped a few this past winter as she played in our switch-grass. So, she has been around some birds, and has shown a very strong drive for them.

As for the chasing, any thoughts on when I should start working with her to "whoa" after the bird flushes? Ultimately, I would like her not to chase as she gets older.
Thanks in advance!
MI-MAN

[DogNewbie]

Sounds to me like the dog is barking simply because you are restraining it from doing what it wants. I'm guessing it will stop once she starts to understand the hunter/dog relationship more. Has the dog been shot over? Many will disagree with this but I think there can be some benefit to shooting a couple birds over an untrained dog at the very beginning of the process. It shows your importance in the hunt and then you can simply train by shooting when the dog behaves as expected and not shooting when it behaves below expectations. Are you using bird launchers?

[MI-Man]

Yes, I have shot over her - 20 ga. at 9 months and 12 ga. last night (12 months), only blanks at this point. She's so crazy for the birds she does care about the gun blasts (at least she show no signs of).
I have used bird launchers but last night I just planted the birds.

I don't want to push her as I know she is still young, just putting her on a few birds once in a while. Just really suprised me when she started barking last night as the birds took flight - had not done that before.

[DogNewbie]

I should've worded that more specific. Have you killed birds for her is really what I was looking for?