Gun Dog Forum

This video popped up on YouTube when my daughter and I were watching videos of bird dogs at bedtime. We mix in some pointing dogs with bedtime stories for good measure. For some reason she keeps telling her Mom about her pointer puppy “Spot” that she is going to get.

It’s concise and thought it gives a pretty good explanation and examples of the fundamentals of launcher work for anybody who is interested and new to launchers.

Garrison

https://youtu.be/2htfvi5csf4

Thanks Garrison! That's really informative and interesting.

BlessedGirl wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:32 am

Thanks Garrison! That's really informative and interesting.

I was thinking of you and your pup when I posted it, glad you saw it.

Garrison

Oh cool! It definitely was insightful.

That was absolutely the best video on using the launcher I have ever seen. All the reasons for using it are there. Notice he used pigeons? dogs don't need to identify different birds right away, simply birds and pen raised birds, even reasonably well flight conditions one will fail you now and then. A pigeon out of a remote trap will flush when you decide it should! A pigeon out of a trap will seldom come out and sit back down on the ground, it will go home, land in a tree or on some other object in the air.

An important thing for me is knowing exactly where the bird is and what way the wind is moving. First few times on a bird I like to pop the bird as it enters the scent cone, don't give the dog a chance to point! Guaranteed after three or four birds like that a decent dog will point before you can pop the bird. If the dog moves at all while on point I like to pop the bird. dogs seem to learn it is their movement that make the bird leave. When I go in to flush I never look for the bird, I watch the dog. It moves its eyes to look at me and I pop the bird. I don't need to look for the bird, I know where it's at, I need to pay attention to what the dog is doing.

Really good seeing that video, as I said best by far I ever saw! Before I forget, try to afford newer launchers. Problem is on the older launchers the baskets are a bit to small for homer's. I had early one's with the small basket's and borrowed some homer's from a friend. They pretty much filled up the basket and if it was to warm out, a few times I launched a dead bird! They suffocated in the trap. My own feral birds were smaller enough it was no problem. So if your buying someone's used traps, put a homer in there and make sure it not to tight. If it is stick to feral. Actually, I have homer's and feral, but I like the feral best, they are wilder.

One last thing about that video. Notice the guy never made an effort to physically train the dog to do what he wanted but rather taught the dog how to get what it wanted, one and the same thing!