City Pigeons???

[stuartjeff]

I'm new to training bird dogs and have a 14 week old GSP. This weekend I took him out to a NAVHDA training field and ran into a wonderful guy who took time out of his own training to show me a few things with my dog and let me use one of his pigeons to introduce my dog to birds. I can't thank him enough for the help, he really got me excited about training my dog and served as a wonderful representative of the hunting dog training world. So Chip if you are reading, thanks again!

Back to my question. Since I live in the city, I was planning to do all of my bird training out in the field as time permits (probably one or two days per week at most) but his pigeon gave me an idea. There are pigeons all over my neighborhood. In fact a large group of them roost on the roof of a building less than a block from my house. I could easily take my dog over there daily to check those birds out. In fact, one day last week when I was taking him out to use the bathroom in the yard there was a pigeon just on the otherside of a trash can in our alley. My dog got about 10 feet from this bird and just hit a hard point. I mean he just stood there pointing so intently that his back legs were quivering. I'd never seen him hit a point so hard that I walked up beside him and once I got even with him he darted forwards and flushed the bird.

So my questions are, would letting him chase city pigeons help his bird drive out in the field? Would teaching him to point city pigeons transfer to quail out in the wild? Would these birds actually be better than birds I raised myself since they never come into contact with humans? Finally, how can I best let him play with these little buggars if I have to keep him on a leash at all times?

Thanks for the help!

[Danro]

Why not trap the pigeons and work with them in a controlled situation out in the field. The transfer to quail would be easier that way since they are both in the same environment.

[SwitchGrassWPG]

Pigeons are a great bird to use for training. They are inexpensive to trap/keep and normally they are very strong fliers. Teh NAVHDA chapter I belong to uses them.

Jay

[AHGSP]

The biggest thing I would fear is, Do you really wanting him in a "hunting" frame of mind within a city?

Personally, I like Danro's suggestion.

[Springer]

One problem with doing the city pigeons is that he is going to be sight pointing these birds instead of using his nose which is what he will need to do with wild birds. If you can trap them or catch them with a fishing net then you can plant them in the grass and make your pup use his nose to find them.

[Hotpepper]

Sight pointing is a whole different can of worms and will cause you much problems and trouble down the road.

Using pidgeons is a great idea, in a hunting and pointing situation.

Pepper