song birds scenting ??

[rudy cordero]

I took my newly acquired 2 yr GSP out to the field with no prior exposure to pigeons or game birds. I had to buzz her once right at the beginning of the day because she started across a highway to chase a swarm of field larks. She decided to stay real close after that and stopped chasing, but looked real hard, I was able to just talk her off. WE got into quail after 5 hours off walking and it never hurts to get a first class bred dog. She was a picture off beauty and elegance, every muscle was shaking as she stretched to 12:00 on both ends (I wished I could shake hands with and thank the wonderful people that put this all together, through smart breeding). Sorry but life was wonderful and god is good. This is an update to my prior post. I have a another question, the dog made point 30 to 40 yards away on several large birds ( birds that look somewhat like a quail but act like song birds in Texas) she was not sight pointing the birds were all behind\in tall grass, Is this something others have experienced and is this any indication of a good nose by your professional standards ??? Thanks in advance for your responses,
Rudy

[bobman]

All good dogs will point song birds and meadow larks when they are young,, let her and ignore it, the way to teach her to focus on quail and game birds is shoot them over her and she will figure it out on her own.

I definitely would not ever ever nick her with a ecollar for that, you risk making her into a blinker.

Nicking her for not coming to the whistle or voice would be ok.... but don't just silently nick her for following dik dik birds.

[Sharon]

You get good advice on here.

[rudy cordero]

This forum is outstanding ! To clarify my question, is a 40 yard scent/point by a dog, on a song bird, average, above average, outstanding etc by your standards????????

[ezzy333]

Rudy,

That is an almost impossible question to answer.From day to day scenting conditions can be completely different so there is no average for a dog. If she was actually scenting from that distance I would think that was good but was it above average, I don't know and I sure wouldn't be concerned about it. In time she will answer your question but yu will be the one to judge and the best way to do that is if you arew happy with it. If so she is doing good.

Ezzy

[Sharon]

Is there an average dog - at scenting or anything ? I 've never met one. I've never seen a standard for average either - although some judges probably have one. (You definately don't want that dog that makes the judge pull his hat over his eyes and doze off.)

Good question though ; makes one think. An average student can be one who is similiar to a large group of other people.Hmm makes one think. Some day I'd like to have a dog who is outstanding.

PS You won't know how talented your dog is for several years, and even then he might surprise you.

[Prairie dog]

It's normal for a dog that does not have much exposure to want to chase and point none game things. The cure for that is what's been said already, the right kind of exposure..

The dog pointing from 40 yards out is a good thing in my opinion even though the dog pointed non game birds...

It tells us the dog has very strong pointing instincts which makes it a very desirable trait to have in pointing dogs...

We can't tell you how good or bad he dogs nose is because the dog comes to us with many instincts along with the pointing instinct. In other words, simply put, just because a dog that points his game real close does not necessarily mean he has a bad nose.It could mean some other trait is over riding his pointing instinct that causes him to point real close or flush the bird ..Hope that helps ..

Sounds like you have a very nice dog..

Pd.

[nj gsp]

The first time I ran my dog on quail, she locked up on a solid point from over 30 yards out. The comment was made that "There's nothing wrong with that nose!"

I'd say the same thing - there's nothing wrong with your dog's nose. Just don't expect the same performance every time. Steady exposure to game birds will lead to a loss of interest in "bleep" birds. You dog will get it all on her own, provided you constructively get her on enough birds often enough.

[rudy cordero]

Thanks for all your comments. I have found a place that will allow me to put up a pigeon house and train my bird dog. This is a great thing for me and my dog. I am in need of a non rocket science pigeon cop design. Anyone have pictures of an easy to use predator resistant, coyote, rats, etc pigeon cop that will hold 25 to 50 birds ??? Thank you again for your expertise.
Rudy

[Don]

While there are dogs that can scent birds from 40 yds under the right condition's there's two things a dog can't do from 40 yds. Hold a game bird and accurately locate a game bird. I think the dog pointing from 40 yds is either cautious to a fault or trained when to point rather than being allowed to develope it's own sense of when it's close enough. Something we can never determine because our scenting abilities stink! All the nose in the world is wasted if the dog can't hold a bird and accurately locate it.