Training whoas?
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:45 pm
Not training whoa. Training whoas.
I have two young bird dogs I'm working with right now, a DD and a brittany. I've been spending considerable time training obedience, bird work, and blood trailing.
Had my first uh oh moment with the britanny today.
She is a bit over 6 months and today was the day to introduce the big gun up close. I have a pile of feral pigeons that I need to use as birds to kill over the two pups. I knew she was going to be fine because I haven't rushed it at all and followed all the right steps. Additionally, she is used to all the noises from construction around the ranch and is just a good well balanced dog (though a bit of a spaz). I placed two birds side-by-side for fun. One in a launcher and one dizzied on the ground next to the launcher. Up till today her point hasn't been very impressive, she loves the birds though so I haven't been concerned, when she was young her point was much better so I know it's just a phase. She made a kind of sloppy point and I launched the bird up right before I thought she would break and shot it over her. She ran out like a bullet and grabbed it up and brought it back to me, once she came back and I gave some praise. I kicked the other bird up and shot it as well and she promptly ran and got it and came back as proud as a peacock.
Great! It was more an exercise in gun training but it ended up really helping her put the pieces together.
I was going to do one more lesson for the day with just one bird in a launcher. She already works the field beautifully for her age and this time around she was even more jazzed. She knew somewhere a bird was waiting, and as soon as she got into the scent cone she locked up like never before. I was quite pleased, I walked up steadily but cautiously and launched the bird before she broke and that's when the launcher malfunctioned, I had to stop her with the check cord, she didn't get the bird but it was close and she was practically on top of it. I didn't shoot of course because things just weren't right.
I didn't think it was really a big deal, things happen. She immediately started yelping in pain right after she was stopped by the check cord. It really wasn't very much whiplash. I couldn't figure out why but I could tell her ear was bothering her and she was tilting her head to one side, almost like when a dog has a foxtail in their ear. I immediately probed around the area and she was in some pretty bad pain, yelping and crying, but there was no visible injuries and I'm pretty certain there actually wasn't/isn't a foxtail in her ear. The only thing I can think at this point is that the recoil from hitting the end of the checkcord and having the GPS collar jolted her ear. One thing I do know is that she is a huge sissy. She stubbed her toe once and walked on three legs for 2 days. I bet any of my other dogs wouldn't have even recognized the pain.
.
Obviously I stopped for the day. Looking forward to getting her back out but will have to wait until her ear is totally better. It's a few hours later and she still has a lean to the side that's hurt and obviously isn't 100%. Also wondering if she is going to have some negative association with the birds. I kind of doubt it because she has seen a ton of birds and this is just one bad experience and she loves birds. I'm just bummed because it was nearly the perfect moment and it went to poop in seconds. Maybe it could be good training, don't go running in willy nilly after birds? She's already had sutures from running into a stray strand of barb wire, that certainly didn't slow her down one bit.
As for the DD, he is even younger and he's the kind of dog that makes training seem easy. He has an excellent point, very stylish and will let me get pretty close to the bird before he breaks. No whoa on birds at this age. A punt gun wouldn't bother him. The only annoying thing is that he doesn't pay much attention to the bird as it flys away, he understands that the launcher is what held the bird and loves to go and try to maul the launcher instead. This began after I started planting multiple birds together, he stopped chasing the birds as they flew away realizing there was more in the bush nearby. So I kind of accomplished one goal since he doesn't run 100 yards after a bird he clearly cannot catch but created another issue of paying no attention to the birds flying away. The first bird I shot over him, he had no clue died because he was busy trying to get to the launcher. So I've since stopped planting multiple birds for now with him. I think shooting birds over him that he sees fall out of the sky will help him get over that.
Anyways. Just curious if ya'll have any horror stories that actually set you back from a single incident. Or stories about things you thought were going to be worse and it ended up being nothing. Again, I'm not really concerned about this dog getting set back in any way but I could see how it could for a different dog or slightly worse situation. Dogs constantly amaze me with their intelligence so I like to give them credit.
I'll include some photos of the brittany for fun. A random person pointed out that she has a cat outline on her forehead, someone else said it looked like batman.
I have two young bird dogs I'm working with right now, a DD and a brittany. I've been spending considerable time training obedience, bird work, and blood trailing.
Had my first uh oh moment with the britanny today.
She is a bit over 6 months and today was the day to introduce the big gun up close. I have a pile of feral pigeons that I need to use as birds to kill over the two pups. I knew she was going to be fine because I haven't rushed it at all and followed all the right steps. Additionally, she is used to all the noises from construction around the ranch and is just a good well balanced dog (though a bit of a spaz). I placed two birds side-by-side for fun. One in a launcher and one dizzied on the ground next to the launcher. Up till today her point hasn't been very impressive, she loves the birds though so I haven't been concerned, when she was young her point was much better so I know it's just a phase. She made a kind of sloppy point and I launched the bird up right before I thought she would break and shot it over her. She ran out like a bullet and grabbed it up and brought it back to me, once she came back and I gave some praise. I kicked the other bird up and shot it as well and she promptly ran and got it and came back as proud as a peacock.
Great! It was more an exercise in gun training but it ended up really helping her put the pieces together.
I was going to do one more lesson for the day with just one bird in a launcher. She already works the field beautifully for her age and this time around she was even more jazzed. She knew somewhere a bird was waiting, and as soon as she got into the scent cone she locked up like never before. I was quite pleased, I walked up steadily but cautiously and launched the bird before she broke and that's when the launcher malfunctioned, I had to stop her with the check cord, she didn't get the bird but it was close and she was practically on top of it. I didn't shoot of course because things just weren't right.
I didn't think it was really a big deal, things happen. She immediately started yelping in pain right after she was stopped by the check cord. It really wasn't very much whiplash. I couldn't figure out why but I could tell her ear was bothering her and she was tilting her head to one side, almost like when a dog has a foxtail in their ear. I immediately probed around the area and she was in some pretty bad pain, yelping and crying, but there was no visible injuries and I'm pretty certain there actually wasn't/isn't a foxtail in her ear. The only thing I can think at this point is that the recoil from hitting the end of the checkcord and having the GPS collar jolted her ear. One thing I do know is that she is a huge sissy. She stubbed her toe once and walked on three legs for 2 days. I bet any of my other dogs wouldn't have even recognized the pain.
.
Obviously I stopped for the day. Looking forward to getting her back out but will have to wait until her ear is totally better. It's a few hours later and she still has a lean to the side that's hurt and obviously isn't 100%. Also wondering if she is going to have some negative association with the birds. I kind of doubt it because she has seen a ton of birds and this is just one bad experience and she loves birds. I'm just bummed because it was nearly the perfect moment and it went to poop in seconds. Maybe it could be good training, don't go running in willy nilly after birds? She's already had sutures from running into a stray strand of barb wire, that certainly didn't slow her down one bit.
As for the DD, he is even younger and he's the kind of dog that makes training seem easy. He has an excellent point, very stylish and will let me get pretty close to the bird before he breaks. No whoa on birds at this age. A punt gun wouldn't bother him. The only annoying thing is that he doesn't pay much attention to the bird as it flys away, he understands that the launcher is what held the bird and loves to go and try to maul the launcher instead. This began after I started planting multiple birds together, he stopped chasing the birds as they flew away realizing there was more in the bush nearby. So I kind of accomplished one goal since he doesn't run 100 yards after a bird he clearly cannot catch but created another issue of paying no attention to the birds flying away. The first bird I shot over him, he had no clue died because he was busy trying to get to the launcher. So I've since stopped planting multiple birds for now with him. I think shooting birds over him that he sees fall out of the sky will help him get over that.
Anyways. Just curious if ya'll have any horror stories that actually set you back from a single incident. Or stories about things you thought were going to be worse and it ended up being nothing. Again, I'm not really concerned about this dog getting set back in any way but I could see how it could for a different dog or slightly worse situation. Dogs constantly amaze me with their intelligence so I like to give them credit.
I'll include some photos of the brittany for fun. A random person pointed out that she has a cat outline on her forehead, someone else said it looked like batman.