Steadiness Issues

[wems2371]

Okay, Roxi WAS steady to flush and wing on launcher pigeons. Then we did some planted pheasants around October, and the first time one came up out of the grass she chased. That seemed to excite her immensely and she started to test us a little on the flush. Have been using a flank cord since then. While it holds her in the general position, she'll still wants to hop and not be still when the bird takes off.....and sometimes even barking in excitement during the flush. If it's a launcher bird, should we be launching it during poor manners during the flush? I would assume we should to show her what her movement caused. We are realizing that our poor wild bird numbers, lack of ability to train on them, and spending too much time in empty fields may be causing a backslide as well. She was whoa broke, but can't seem to resist moving during the flight stage, even when corded. Maybe that'll take more time and repetition??? So we're going to go back to what she knows, and do some launcher pigeons this week to reinstill the steady to flush and wing........and work some on the shot which is fairly new to her. She's a quick learner, but just needing more experience (us too ), and we would appreciate thoughts or tips. We are having a little bit of a snag into transitioning on, and want to nip any problems in the bud right now.

Today, we worked a few planted quail at a WMA, after finding no wild birds.
1st Bird--She winded and then catwalked towards the launcher, so I popped the bird. She chased a little and then we were back to working the field.
2nd Bird--Only knowing the general direction it flew over the hill, the now free bird was relocated with a solid point. I was no where near to help steady, and she broke as my husband was in a thicket trying to flush. Bird flew and she chased a little.
3rd Bird--She was getting the idea now. Winded bird at a good distance, with a solid point at about 40'. Dog held steady as husband walked up and around to launcher. I even forgot to remove the launcher safety pin and she held while he removed it. Bird launched and husband shot. I had her on the checkcord and she proceeded to bounce around....and if remember right, bark during wing and shot. I physically reset and whoa'd her for a moment and then released her to look for bird.

We have a 1/2 day scheduled at a preserve, where birds should be easy to find. How do we approach this day? Do I flank cord her for the flush, flight, and shot? FYI--She has had minimal work on steady to shot. Seems like even if she does well on the flush and flight--I would need to cord her for the shot and fall. Sorry for the longwinded post. Going to pull out my books and videos this afternoon too. We do have an e-collar that we've only used for trashbreaking thus far, and I'm a little hesitant to use it otherwise. We've just hit a little wall, that we need help getting over. All advice appreciated. Thanks in advance. Denise

[Benny]

This is a great question, and with my utter lack of experience beyond check cord and "come", I'm really looking forward to hearing the answer

[Don]

You can answer this one yourself. Tell us what you did to get her steady to flush and wing on the pigeons? There's your answer. When you left the pigeons behind and moved on to game birds, start over from the begining. It goes much faster the second time!

[fritzer]

Good response Don...I tried to post a long winded reply to wems, but it didn't submit for some reason.

[wems2371]

Thanks for the posts and pms. I am seeing that we probably moved too fast. Steadiness was done with mostly launcher and some hobbled pigeons. We have worked some pen quail and pheasant, but obviously not nearly enough..........and we went too fast trying to put it all together (steadiness through to shot) too quickly. The dog is also gunbroke, and not gunshy in the least, so we jumped too fast in trying to incorporate all the moves instead of moving step by step. This is what bird season opening day does to a person. She's a quick study, so it won't take much to get her back on track. We just have to rework our playbook and stick to it. Thanks again for any advice. Denise

**Fritzer, wish I'd gotten to see your post. Been there--done that before with the disappearing post. Really stinks.

[myerstenn]

Is the dog whoa broke and are you using a collar-e????????????? dont expect it to happen over night it takes repetition. Any time you change the process or type of bird the dog will probably take a step backward. be consistant and stay at it.

[mountaindogs]

I have seen dogs learn to love the chase SO much that they bump the birds on purpose. They won't learn from popping a launcher up if they get too close, if they can still chase after that. You are giving them what they want, when you you do that. They must also be kept from chasing after the bird goes up. So bumping up a bird means no fun, just standing and watching it fly off, and holding a bird means it gets shot (hopefully ) and a retrieve.

[A/C Guy]

We planted 3 pheasant in cages to try to break our brits from busting and chasing birds. The first time they tried, we yanked them back with the check cords, told them "whoa" and planted them on point. It took 6 or 7 times of doing this to get them to go on point and hold point, They just needed to learn that they were not going to get to chase the pheasants at all; none period. They were worked that morning simply on locating and pointing, we did not release the birds until the end of the session. During the session, we kept moving and relocating the cages and we worked the dogs from different angles in the fields. They did get the idea of they were allowed to find the bird and point only, and hold point. Pheasant have a stronger scent than pigeon and that excites the dog more than when pointing pigeons.