tracking wounded birds

[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.