Worked Kage on Gun

[grant]

Here's Kage on point, and me with the blank gun...

He did great today!

[snips]

A Dual Champion in the works!

[Ayres]

I don't see a check cord.... ?? You let him point without holding him back? Was the bird in a launcher?

I took Justus out on the blank gun last week (before losing my carded pigeon I was using for training purposes) and found it very difficult to keep an eye on the dog, an eye on the launcher, hold the dog back from the launcher with the checkcord, and launch the bird when he takes a step. Cutting out the checkcord would be VERY helpful.. so how did you do it?

[grant]

A Dual Champion in the works!

Lindsay's already claiming him for herself. He's "her dog" =) We'll see about that! ahahahaaha

Luckily these birds have been in the wild for a good while. If he lunges, they will be long gone. He'll hold a point for a good while without a checkcord. If I didn't have access to these birds, I'd be doing the launcher thing also. Its the same concept. If the dog lunges, birds fly =) We sure do have fun with him! Is Justus holding points well?

[snips]

As long as I have pups on great flying birds I free run them letting the birds teach them. If I see their natural abilities starting to digress I pull them off pen birds til they are of training age. I have Kages bro taking young training dogs for walks to find the birds for them to get them started. He thinks he`s the bird master at this point!

[grant]

Chug can POINT! That boy's serious!

[PA_Sportsman]

looking good Grant!

[Ayres]

Yeah, Justus holds points very well (until I start walking in front of him and then he gets jumpy). I just thought the checkcord was essential because of the way the Perfection Kennels videos touted it.

I'll be glad to start letting him free-run hunt! I think it would be better that way anyway, so he learns that he's not just getting lead to the birds on a string. I guess I was just afraid to not use the checkcord because of what I'd seen in the videos.

BTW: I ordered Perfect Finish a few weeks ago but still haven't heard anything. Hopefully I'll get it in the mail soon, but it took about a month to get Perfect Start so I dunno how long this one will take.

[dhondtm]

I free ran Cassi her first time out with the starter pistol and if you recall I mentioned she caught the bird. The mistake was using a pen raised bird when free running her and although it is not good for them to catch the bird I will argue it is not the end of the world either.

I have tried to limit our hikes and letting her free run with the wild birds because I can tell it seemed to be more of a game to her and she wasn't hunting anymore. She behaves differently on hikes now then hunts. It is quite interesting to observe, but she definately knows the difference.

[TAK]

I free ran Cassi her first time out with the starter pistol and if you recall I mentioned she caught the bird. The mistake was using a pen raised bird when free running her and although it is not good for them to catch the bird I will argue it is not the end of the world either.

I have tried to limit our hikes and letting her free run with the wild birds because I can tell it seemed to be more of a game to her and she wasn't hunting anymore. She behaves differently on hikes now then hunts. It is quite interesting to observe, but she definately knows the difference.

If I lived were you do I would be in Globe Running on all the wild birds!
Catching birds is not the end of the world but to many has you looking over the edge.

[Greg Jennings]

Grant and Lins picked up Kage three days before I picked up Gunner. Kage is from Brenda's litter, Gunner is from Rick's.

Here is Gunner on point in after-hours fun at the Gordon Setter Club hunt test in Cedartown, GA 11/14/2004.




Here Gunner shows off during the retrieve:



Here he says that he's proud of himself:



Best regards,