I have a problem with a dog I have. First a little history . I bought Zoe when she was 5 weeks old from a breeder in
Colorado, she is a German short hair. For the first year we have been working on the basic obedience commands sit, stay , here, come and heal.
She has learned all of these things quickly and easily. I have taken her out in the field twice she never pointed any birds but ran through coveys both
times and didn't know what to do. As summer went by I worked with her in the back yard with a wing on the end of a line and she will point the wing
and hold that point. Here is my problem. I started using live birds hidden in the grass and as we walk through the field she will catch wind of the bird
and briefly pause but continue on like she trying to avoid the bird,she does know that the bird is there but wants nothing to do with it. But here is the strange part
I threw a crippled bird on the ground to see if she would at least retrieve the bird . She immediately chased after the bird and proceeded to eat it. ( she has never eaten one or ever tried to catch one in the back yard.)
So here my question what can I do to get her to point birds in the grass and how do I keep her from eating any of the shot birds?
Confused
Keep working her. If you can, hunt her with a another trained dog. She just needs to be hunted, a lot. As far as her eating the bird, buy one of those spiked bands that attactch to the bird. It will make her have a soft mouth. Also, put a shock collar on her. Short hairs can be quite hard headed. Hope this helps.
You have not trained your dog to hunt. All you did was obedience train here. She probably knows kennel, food, dish, and obedience but has no bird sense, and a wing on a string is good to see if a pup has point, but does very little for teaching her to handle birds. You cannot hunt this dog this year, she needs to learn to range, hit cover, point, hold, and handle.
Send her to a pro, or get Delmar Smith's book and a bunch of pigeons and start training her.
I think its a matter of time and more bird exposure.I would set some birds out and 'mark' them,weither it be a small peiece of orange tape or bending some grass close to where the bird is placed.Then work the dog on a checkcord towards the planted birds,dont lead it directly to the bird but let it use its nose to find it.Once the dog gets scent and stops to point hold tension on the checkcord so the dog cant run in and just grab the bird.Some dogs will struggle while on the checkcord,thinking if you let them free they can do as they please,DONT RELEASE the dog,let it stand to hold point and have someone flush the bird.Repetition of this drill works well in having a dog hold their points on birds.
Also if the dog is winding birds and pausing just for a few secs,thats considered a point.You need to use that checkcord to steady the dog to hold the points for longer periods of time.Also since you havent actually hunted the dog I express caution and proper gun introduction when the time comes..Take care,Jackson..
With all that obedience training you did you somehow missed teaching the dog the most important command a pointing dog should know, Whoa.
Teach your dog to stop and stand still on the whoa command. After a short time do this with distraction, and occassionally thrash the grass and brush in front of her as if you are trying to flush a bird.
After she whoa's reliably and is steady while you thrash around in front of her reintroduce her to birds in cover. At this stage she should whoa for 5-10 minutes if you want her to, and from distances too.
It sounds to me like she is blinking the birds.This ussually associated with the dog avoiding the bird because it associates the bird with excessive pressure. If she were flash pointing she would have flushed the bird right after the flash point.
Anyway, when she flash points the bird steady her with a whoa. Then flush the bird and praise the dog. Praise excessively so she understands, and gets excited about finding birds.
Also, try changing your training ground. Dogs remember places well. If you always train at the same place she will act the same way everytime. Train your dog for each command in at least 5 different locations. If you don't you might find the dog will forget everything you taught it in the park when you get her out in the woods.
Until she is hunting well quit using the heal command. This just teaches the dog that staying close in more important than hunting.
And go real slow and careful with the gun breaking. You should have started that on day one.
confused bird dog
