Chasing tweety birds

oldbeek · Post by **oldbeek** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 11:18 pm

You guys and gals give great advise, so here is another. If you are following my posts, you can see I am a amateur but have had pointers for years. My 17 month old Brittany is bird crazy. She has always chased tweety birds. A neighboring trainer says let her chase. It is great when she was young to make her birdy. She will learn she can not catch them. Problem is she does catch them right out of the air on occasion. If 2 or 3 in a bush she points them to the degree that in a recent NSTRA trial her brace mate got a back on her solid point. Should I discourage it? If so when?

Post by **Sharon** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 11:46 pm

That's a new one to me.
Normally once a dog gets on to REAL birds, tweety birds become a thing of the past. That must have got some smiles at the NSTRA trial.

I guess you just give her exposure to as many real birds as possible. I would say NOTHING when she is on to tweety birds. Show no interest, walk away. She might decide you don't want her on birds at all otherwise. I'll be interested in what others have to say.

Trekmoor · Post by **Trekmoor** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:11 am

It's a new one on me with a pup of that age too. I have managed to stop pups of up to about 11 months old chasing tweety birds by sort of overloading them with small birds and some large ones too. I did this by taking the pup to very quiet beaches and letting the pup chase the hundreds of shoreline birds until it just about dropped from exhaustion. No dog I've ever known can catch shoreline wading birds.

That's not much use if you live a long way from the sea though. I'd have thought that once your pup got some gamebirds into it's mouth by having pointed them first it's interest in tweety birds would have gone away.

Bill T.

gundogguy · Post by **gundogguy** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:33 am

It is a rare occurrence the behavior your older pup is going through. Pick and choose your battles, I'm sure I would not go to war over the situation!

zjohn14 · Post by **zjohn14** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:17 am

Both my Gsp's chased tweety birds, my male chased them until he was 17 months an my female stop much sooner at 7 months. After putting my dogs on many quail an ruffed grouse they just grew out if it. But I agree with Sharon, show no interest an say nothing, an ignore the dog. Put as many pen raised birds an wild birds in front of your dog as you can. Most dogs grow out of it by a year an a half old. Good luck with your dog

DonF · Post by **DonF** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 9:55 am

17 mos! Get your hands on some remote traps and pigeon's. Get off the "bleep" birds. When it's the only game in town it's what it sounds like she's gonna do. Have to teach her she can't catch birds, take her to them. Soon as she either give's notice of game or is where she should, pop the bird on her. My Squirt and Bodie go into the hen house looking for "bleep" birds. They catch them and take them out. They don't chase them in the field. Your problem is it's the only game in town.

Moulders Farm · Post by **Moulders Farm** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 12:41 pm

I have a female 6 yrs old that chases tweety birds every morning & night when I turn her loose to run . But the momit you put a lease on her & lead her to the field or take her in the truck to a place to hunt it is all buss game birds only . So I let her injoy her self & get her chance to run when turned out of the kennal . After you hunt her with a lot of game birds or even pigions she will be happy to leave the tweety birds along . they are breed to chase & hunt birds untail they are shown what to hunt they are just using there instence

DudeRN · Post by **DudeRN** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:59 pm

my 18 mo old Brittany loves to chase tweety birds in the off season, I think it helps her get her bird fix when we are not able to hunt.

The only times she points or chases them while we are hunting is if we havem't had any luck, and she knows we are getting close to quitting for the day. Then I don't mind if she has some fun. I figure if she sticks to business when I need her to, it is okay to get the need for some birds out of her system however she can.

Post by **ezzy333** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:15 pm

My 11 year old still will look for them here in the yard and point or start to chase though he has decided they aren't worth chasing. But he sure has fun looking for them. I grew up with a dog that would spend most of the day chasing bird shadows when they would sit on the wires going to the barn and the shadow would be on the gravel barnyard. Stand there and paw at them and then chase when the bird flew. Kept her in shape.

Ezzy

Post by **Sharon** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:23 pm

DonF wrote:17 mos! Get your hands on some remote traps and pigeon's. Get off the "bleep" birds. When it's the only game in town it's what it sounds like she's gonna do. Have to teach her she can't catch birds, take her to them. Soon as she either give's notice of game or is where she should, pop the bird on her. My Squirt and Bodie go into the hen house looking for "bleep" birds. They catch them and take them out. They don't chase them in the field. Your problem is it's the only game in town.

Old Beek: Don't let this answer get lost in the list. Exactly what needs to be done.

cmc274 · Post by **cmc274** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:58 am

I sure wouldn't worry about it. There are bigger fish to fry. I got a pointer that will occasionally chase and strike when she's in pursui, she's plum fine around her game.

oldbeek · Post by **oldbeek** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:18 pm

Sharon wrote:
DonF wrote:17 mos! Get your hands on some remote traps and pigeon's. Get off the "bleep" birds. When it's the only game in town it's what it sounds like she's gonna do. Have to teach her she can't catch birds, take her to them. Soon as she either give's notice of game or is where she should, pop the bird on her. My Squirt and Bodie go into the hen house looking for "bleep" birds. They catch them and take them out. They don't chase them in the field. Your problem is it's the only game in town.
Old Beek: Don't let this answer get lost in the list. Exactly what needs to be done.

I have 2 remote traps and she has seen 2 pigeons released almost every day of her life. I have gone through at least 40 shooting pigeons and wore out a loft of 15 homers last year. The homers got so tired of being used in the traps that they just left my loft in mass one day. They now reside at a hay barn down the road. We also have wild valley quail around the house that she gets to work on at least weekly and a few were shot for her.

Chukar12 · Post by **Chukar12** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:28 pm

I would ignore it for now, other than a gruff "get out of that" when you know its going on, then send the dog on with a whistle, your voice or body language however you do it. When the dog is dead broke and showing you maturity..and I am reticent to proclaim a date for that, but let's say three. Get more serious about correcting it. I don't like the e-collar for this correction, I have seen too many dogs start pointing them because the stimulation makes them think they need to stand. I run them down and pull them off, if need be I shake them a bit, or give them a collar spin. It takes some time, but generally they want game more and the corrections can be light to get the to quit...again, after they are mature enough for the correction.

Post by **Sharon** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 8:33 pm

oldbeek wrote:
Sharon wrote:
DonF wrote:17 mos! Get your hands on some remote traps and pigeon's. Get off the "bleep" birds. When it's the only game in town it's what it sounds like she's gonna do. Have to teach her she can't catch birds, take her to them. Soon as she either give's notice of game or is where she should, pop the bird on her. My Squirt and Bodie go into the hen house looking for "bleep" birds. They catch them and take them out. They don't chase them in the field. Your problem is it's the only game in town.
Old Beek: Don't let this answer get lost in the list. Exactly what needs to be done.
I have 2 remote traps and she has seen 2 pigeons released almost every day of her life. I have gone through at least 40 shooting pigeons and wore out a loft of 15 homers last year. The homers got so tired of being used in the traps that they just left my loft in mass one day. They now reside at a hay barn down the road. We also have wild valley quail around the house that she gets to work on at least weekly and a few were shot for her.

LOL Well Id say you've done all you can do.

Soarer31 · Post by **Soarer31** » Wed Feb 25, 2015 8:38 pm

You can make good use when pups chase "bleep" birds...
That's one of the ways I introduce a starting pistol on the pup

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