tracking wounded birds

[Commando]

how do you guys train your retrievers to tack wounded game? I am starting to do NARHA tests and need to train on tracking wounded bird. would it be as simple as getting a bird and dragging it around a field then let the dog loos and have him find it? same question for upland hunting and flushing? how do I go about teaching my pup the upland game? I was thinking of taking him to a release site near my place and let him get a crash course but not sure if that is a good idea since there are a bunch of people hunting around there...

[WSU]

I'm not a dog trainer and haven't done tests, but time on live birds seems to have the most success in the dog figuring out how to effectively hunt live, running birds.

[ghosthunter]

I don't know how they do it in the dog trails.
You want Happy or Wildweeds to chime in.

For me with my lab and my sons lab. We threw live pigeons with clipped wings for them. Once they were nuts about that, took about 15 minutes .

than we started hiding birds.  After that the dogs did the rest.

I think keeping the dog at the proper range takes more work.

The more birds the better.

[Happy Gilmore]

seen some tracking tests where they drag a scent and have "points" in the field marked where the track changes course and the dog is scored on how well they follow the scent course.

I start pups in the water with a shackled duck then slowly change the level of movement the duck is allowed until the duck can be wing clipped and released in the water. They'll often bury under weeds, climb out etc. A wing shackled duck will work good for a start and give the dog a great reward when it's found.

It shouldn't take much to get a good, "hunt" command going. Its a part of training which is all positive and all fun for the dogs.

[Dhoey07]

I tell him "dead bird", give him a line and he does the rest 

[JODakota]

I tell him "dead bird", give him a line and he does the rest 

^this, they figure it out pretty quick

[singleshot12]

Dogs shouldn't need to be trained to track a wounded bird. The smell of the blood should hopefully get his instinct engine going. If not get a new D O G..

[vandeman17]

I tell him "dead bird", give him a line and he does the rest 

I second this. Sometimes I will wade go out with them and rile them up and get them excited and they have a good idea of what they are supposed to do. After a while, you can actually tell just by the sound and how they act if they are on the scent or not.

[constructeur]

I don't think it's wise to wait until hunting season to train your dog (unless necessary due to puppies age) as by that point practice is over and it's game time so to speak. Plus it's a bit rude to come out when others are hunting just to let your dog run around and bust birds up and stuff (my opinion, others may vary.)

In NAVHDA we do a scent track in the natural ability test, essentially you pull the flight feathers from a pheasant, leave the dog a scent pile of fluff (as if it's been shot and hit the ground), then let the live bird go and run wherever it may. Bring the dog out and show him the scent pile, and let him go. Generally they chase the bird and kill it, if this happens you now have a bird to put in the freezer and do scent tracks with (lasts a few times.)

It's always a good idea to do some drags with a dead bird or scented bumper as well; as the dog builds skills and confidence add a few turns in the drag to challenge him. Keep in mind though, you want build skill and confidence, no setting him up for tricks or super hard stuff right out of the gate.

[KFhunter]

my dog was a really small puppy I'd put a chunk of hotdog on a string and drag it around the yard and plant it, wouldn't even encourage them to find the bit of hotdog.  I'd just drag one around then hide it somewhere and go back in the house and toss the puppy out in the yard to "go potty"

They'd come across the trail and work it for a while with no one out there to distract them, loose the trail and come across it again over and over until they find it.  They get really good at tracking a hot dog trail really fast!


I dunno, but it really seems to turn their noses on.


Now I just drag a fresh dead bird around and plant it, then I'll take a live bird and put it in a launcher where the dead bird trail starts. 
Dog on check cord she'll point the live bird in the launcher and I flush *pop* with cap gun then   DEAD BIRD!  DEAD BIRD!

off she goes down the bird trail to pick up the dead bird.

[AspenBud]

I would not train a dog to track until it is steadied on birds.

[JODakota]

I would not train a dog to track until it is steadied on birds.

True, steadied on birds should be your first priority

[birddogdad]

I don't think it's wise to wait until hunting season to train your dog (unless necessary due to puppies age) as by that point practice is over and it's game time so to speak. Plus it's a bit rude to come out when others are hunting just to let your dog run around and bust birds up and stuff (my opinion, others may vary.)

In NAVHDA we do a scent track in the natural ability test, essentially you pull the flight feathers from a pheasant, leave the dog a scent pile of fluff (as if it's been shot and hit the ground), then let the live bird go and run wherever it may. Bring the dog out and show him the scent pile, and let him go. Generally they chose the bird and kill it, if this happens you now have a bird to put in the freezer and do scent tracks with (lasts a few times.)

It's always a good idea to do some drags with a dead bird or scented bumper as well, as the dog builds skills and confidence add a few turns in the drag to challenge him. Keep in mind though, you want build skill and confidence, no setting him up for tricks or super hard stuff right out of the gate.

  and it only needs to happen once.. not something that needs to be worked or practiced... get a game bird and let the pup work it... I do this one time with a puppy. I take a fishing rod and tie line to the pheasants leg for the first tracking just incase the pheasant never stops and runs out of the country. I can stop it so puppy gets positive reinforcement of the locate....

[KFhunter]

that's a good idea

[AspenBud]

I don't think it's wise to wait until hunting season to train your dog (unless necessary due to puppies age) as by that point practice is over and it's game time so to speak. Plus it's a bit rude to come out when others are hunting just to let your dog run around and bust birds up and stuff (my opinion, others may vary.)

In NAVHDA we do a scent track in the natural ability test, essentially you pull the flight feathers from a pheasant, leave the dog a scent pile of fluff (as if it's been shot and hit the ground), then let the live bird go and run wherever it may. Bring the dog out and show him the scent pile, and let him go. Generally they chose the bird and kill it, if this happens you now have a bird to put in the freezer and do scent tracks with (lasts a few times.)

It's always a good idea to do some drags with a dead bird or scented bumper as well, as the dog builds skills and confidence add a few turns in the drag to challenge him. Keep in mind though, you want build skill and confidence, no setting him up for tricks or super hard stuff right out of the gate.

  and it only needs to happen once.. not something that needs to be worked or practiced... get a game bird and let the pup work it... I do this one time with a puppy. I take a fishing rod and tie line to the pheasants leg for the first tracking just incase the pheasant never stops and runs out of the country. I can stop it so puppy gets positive reinforcement of the locate....

I'd be careful with using pheasants. A feisty rooster can lead to problems with a pup if it spurs it badly enough.

[birddogdad]

yes was going to say that too... chukar, quail or pigeons until old enough or right before performance test work fine..

[Commando]

Thanks guys. Today I put some scent on a bumper and drug it behind me and laid a trail down, than let him hunt it up. He did pretty good. I'll try and get my hands on some pidgeons soon and drag and plant them and watch him do his thing.

[BD1]

Guess I am lucky...never had to train my old girl to do it...she just did

[birddogdad]

Guess I am lucky...never had to train my old girl to do it...she just did

not a "training" act BD, but for the first dog test, this is apart of the scoring. best to have the dog see this before that scored test. For sure the dog "knows" but practice prevents misinterpreting the dogs true ability by a judge.

[BD1]

[
Fully aware...like i said, she was licked from day 1;so I didn't have to spend my time on it 
quote author=birddogdad link=topic=175699.msg2337944#msg2337944 date=1434483868]

Guess I am lucky...never had to train my old girl to do it...she just did

not a "training" act BD, but for the first dog test, this is apart of the scoring. best to have the dog see this before that scored test. For sure the dog "knows" but practice prevents misinterpreting the dogs true ability by a judge.
[/quote]

[DOUBLELUNG]

my dog was a really small puppy I'd put a chunk of hotdog on a string and drag it around the yard and plant it, wouldn't even encourage them to find the bit of hotdog.  I'd just drag one around then hide it somewhere and go back in the house and toss the puppy out in the yard to "go potty"

They'd come across the trail and work it for a while with no one out there to distract them, loose the trail and come across it again over and over until they find it.  They get really good at tracking a hot dog trail really fast!

I did very similar except I'd put a small pieced of hotdog under a wing in my yard and let the puppy (7-9 weeks) find the wing and hotdog.  Then I did a few wing drags to lay scent, started her on the scent and let her follow it to the wing with the hotdog.  Then I started doing the wing drag, but calling her to me with "fetch", and giving her the hotdog when she brought me the wing and gave it to me.

This was not labor intensive, maybe a couple hours total of each over the summer.  Then we shot 110 grouse over her in September when she was 7 months old.  She was a bird hunting fool for 12 more years, and I still miss her.  Blind retrieves, never gave up on a wounded bird, all heart.  I have had 5 labs, but that border collie was the best hunting dog I ever had.

 

[Jonathan_S]

Sounds like an awesome dog DoubleLung 

The goofy little mutt in my avatar learned to track wounded grouse in a few hours with a chicken wing from a freshly butchered rooster.  She's no bird dog but she stays close, flushes, retrieves with a soft mouth, and tracks wounded grouse.  What's that old saying... if it walks like a duck?

Dogs shouldn't need to be trained to track a wounded bird. The smell of the blood should hopefully get his instinct engine going. If not get a new D O G..

Or you could spend an hour or two working with the dog 

[DOUBLELUNG]

Sounds like an awesome dog DoubleLung 

She was fantastic.  I've known a few oddball bird dogs that were great hunters: Doberman, Jack Russell and Heinz 57s.