Gun Dog Forum

Okay let's assume you want an ultra-steady pointing dog who will hunt both wild and pen raised birds in their life. Steady until you SEND them for a retrieve. You have done the training or had the dog trained and they are green-broke. For this poll I will define green-broke as holding birds that walk in training dragging CC, stopping to flush in training dragging a CC, steady until release dragging a CC. All while wearing e-collar with minimal but some corrections as needed. Should your first (or one of first) "real" hunt be a pheasant hunt on early season wild pheasants?

Nobody even wants to vote? Come on. Live a little!

Depend's on what your calling a green broke dog! Pretty sure of one thing, if your dog is pointing training bird's well, pheasant's will keep it honest.

Take them to the birds.

In a month I will be on my 4th "started pointer," change there names and let it get use to its new surroundings for a week.
Then is right to wild pheasants. Early mornings when the birds are on the road, drop the dog out down wind and let them go. After a couple weeks of that and getting in shape take them to bigger ground and cut em loose. Fortunate to have access and the number of birds. Dogs are 10-11 months old. First season is fun as it's all about finding birds, dogs are tough and can hunt hard. Just the way I do it, we shoot lots of birds over fine dogs.

Depends on what you want todo with your dog. Pheasants kinda suck at keeping a dog steady but a green broke dog has enough Wild in it todo well on pheasants who like to run on ya.

Take 'em. The more wild bird contacts they have the faster they learn. If they are not preforming to your standards you can work on that in the off season.