Frozen bird

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diplomat019
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Frozen bird

Post by diplomat019 » Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:39 am

Can you please specify how to use a dead frozen bird for retrieving? How many times can you freeze it? Do you wait for it to kinda fall apart? Completely frozen during training or slightly thawed? Thanks

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DonF
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by DonF » Wed Jan 28, 2015 12:54 pm

Freeze it solid then when you use it, let it thaw till the neck is no longer frozen. I think the general though is to thaw about 20 min to get the feather's thawed. If you do that, your gonna break the head off. Probably doesn't matter just get's me throwing a bird with no head! Use it just like a training buck for really that's about all it is. It will get your dog used to putting feather's in it's mouth and it can't chomp down to much. Once a dog is doing well with it, I switch to a fresh killed bird.

diplomat019
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by diplomat019 » Wed Jan 28, 2015 3:47 pm

ok. im guessing i can re-freeze it as long as the bird is still in good shape. thanks for the tip

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gonehuntin'
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by gonehuntin' » Wed Jan 28, 2015 4:27 pm

You'll smell when it's not in such good shape. :lol:

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CDN_Cocker
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by CDN_Cocker » Wed Jan 28, 2015 4:47 pm

Thaw completely before each use

diplomat019
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by diplomat019 » Wed Jan 28, 2015 6:10 pm

gonehuntin' wrote:You'll smell when it's not in such good shape. :lol:
lol

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Roffey
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by Roffey » Wed Jan 28, 2015 6:17 pm

CDN_Cocker wrote:Thaw completely before each use
This is what my advise would be... I had a lot of trouble in the beginning with using frozen birds my BLF acts like its her first bird when there too froze. I can generally use a bird for plenty of training sessions and refreeze again.

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DonF
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by DonF » Thu Jan 29, 2015 8:50 am

If you want to thaw it completely, why not use a fresh killed bird? If you don't thaw it enough some dog's might balk at it but thawed enough it stays good a long time and doesn't let a dog chomp on it.

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GSP4ME
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by GSP4ME » Thu Jan 29, 2015 11:37 am

Don, not sure for others, but for me it's about availability. I can go out and train with a few birds and then keep a couple frozen when we are done and use them over and over so I'm not having to rely on having fresh kills. I'd love to have so many birds at my disposal that I could kill them on an as needed basis but at the moment, that's just not the case.

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Grange
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by Grange » Fri Jan 30, 2015 9:31 am

gonehuntin' wrote:You'll smell when it's not in such good shape. :lol:
Before I got into pointing dogs I liked to do retriever training. I went to a training day with a retriever club and they had duck carcasses that they just gutted and then filled the cavity with expanding foam. They would used them on land an in water they worked well, but after a while my lab wasn't sure if she should retrieve it or roll on it. :?

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DonF
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by DonF » Fri Jan 30, 2015 9:39 am

I can understand that. But a bird completely thawed and re-frozen seem's to me like it would become freeze dried before to long. I like a frozen bird to get a dog going the right way with bird's but I don't think you'll ever really know how your program is working until the dog is sent for fresh killed birds, has to be a different smell to the dog I would guess. It's like training with pigeons, at some point you have to take the dog off them and run on game birds. Then if you hunt wild birds, running on the wild bird's is going to change the rule's for the dog from even the pen raised game bird. I know a lot of people, myself included, that didn't use frozen birds to train with. But once I started, I used them on every dog.

In my opinion, training is about moving dog's to different level's. Each level is important and those left out can come back to bite you. In teaching the retrieve, many people claim the make the dog retrieve object's they won't ever shoot for the dog and have a dog carry around a dead bird for extended period's of time to instill the hold command. If it works for them it's fine for me but I don't send a dog after object's I'll probably never shoot for them once I'm past a training buck. For me a frozen bird in retrieving training is nothing more than a step to get to the fresh killed bird. It allows the dog to get feather's in it's mouth but the dog can't crunch down on it. The fact of the matter though, is that if it work's, everybody is right!

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gonehuntin'
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by gonehuntin' » Fri Jan 30, 2015 11:20 am

No, they don't feeze dry Don. They rot and quickly form being out an hour or two at a time and having their bones smashed from all of the tosses where they land on hard ground.

Many times you can go to a retriever field trial or hunt test and ask for some of the dead duck and pheasant when they're done with them. They live fliers shot on sunday will be in good shape.

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Re: Frozen bird

Post by Dirty Dawger » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:19 am

Just a head's up. Using frozen solid birds can lead to hard mouth.

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CDN_Cocker
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by CDN_Cocker » Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:29 pm

Dirty Dawger wrote:Just a head's up. Using frozen solid birds can lead to hard mouth.
Along with other problems. Try holding a block of ice between your teeth for a period of time. Not pleasant, regardless of the species.

diplomat019
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by diplomat019 » Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:38 pm

for my situation i doubt i can get freshly killed birds. frozen would be the way i would have to go. don, i see what your saying, and agree, i just dont think its feasible for me. so as long as i thaw it out before using i should be good to go. thanks for the comments and suggestions.

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CDN_Cocker
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Re: Frozen bird

Post by CDN_Cocker » Mon Feb 02, 2015 6:03 pm

diplomat019 wrote:for my situation i doubt i can get freshly killed birds. frozen would be the way i would have to go. don, i see what your saying, and agree, i just dont think its feasible for me. so as long as i thaw it out before using i should be good to go. thanks for the comments and suggestions.
Tons of people freeze and thaw... and re-freeze. There is nothing wrong with it. Good luck and get to training!

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