Training with hens or roosters

[ducklab]

I want to know if it is more beneficial to train with roosters or hens? I assume that the more birds the better, but I could be assuming wrong. The basic question:

Should I train with roosters and have my dog on less total birds?
Or train with hens and have more total birds?

[buglebuster]

Idk why it would matter either way. A pheasant is a pheasant to your dog.

[Mr56Jeep]

More total birds....  Pigeons, quail, chuckar, roosters or hens.... Just work the dog and everyone will be happy     

[Stilly bay]

is this a pointy dog or one of them flushy dogs? im guessing by your handle its a lab but you never know, could be a pointing lab these days...
what type of training scenario are you setting up?

up to a certain point the less pen raised birds you use with a pointer the better off he is. with flusher / retriever I don't think it matters as long as the birds are feisty enough to not be caught.

[kyle78]

Your dog can't tell the difference if it's a hen or rooster. They both smell the same. The main thing is put a lot of birds in front of it. If you are having to buy the birds, I would go with hens, they are generally cheaper. My dog hunts all kinds of upland birds and couldn't tell a pheasant from a quail. All he has learned is that if it's on the ground and he jumps it and I shoot, then all is good and he continues to do it. Does know the difference between game birds and tweety birds though.

[bobcat]

Does know the difference between game birds and tweety birds though.

I have always wondered how my dogs know that a grouse, quail, chukar, pheasant, etc. are GOOD birds, but anything else they're not interested in. How do they know? The birds smell different?

[Stilly bay]

Does know the difference between game birds and tweety birds though.

I have always wondered how my dogs know that a grouse, quail, chukar, pheasant, etc. are GOOD birds, but anything else they're not interested in. How do they know? The birds smell different?

a dogs nose is just that good.

I saw a show where they took swabs with cancerous cells on them, put them in a jars and buried them a couple feet in the sand along the waters edge.
some jars had cancerous swabs, other didn't, but the dog who was trained to find evidence of cancer by smell found the correct jars and showed no interest in the incorrect ones.

if I remember correctly this dog wasn't even a blood hound or other hound, it was a terrier or something.

[ducklab]

Thanks guys. I will be using any game birds that I can get my hands on. She is a lab and a flusher so im glad farm raised birds will be good enough.

[Birdguy]

Buy as many of the cheapest birds you can find. You will be happier with more birds than the sex of the bird, and the dog will not care either. I would say avoid the coturnix quail you will find list on craigslist as they are very poor flyers(even the best ones) and will be caught by your dog also they seldom fly high enough to even get a safe shot off. I would avoid bobwhites as well if you are on the wet side or you will only be able to get flyers on the dry days. Chukars work pretty well but make efforts to keep them as dry as you can as well. This time of year birds are tougher to find and the ones that are out there will most likely be expensive as they have now been fed all winter. Good luck.

[thinkingman]

I was begging to hunt my lab last year and we shot over her at 4mos old...rock steady.
The trainer I was working with said to go to a preserve, have them plant HENS, and only shoot one gun over her.
His theory...hens can't spur a puppy.
....And they're cheaper.
I did and it worked great...she was a machine this year in her first real season.

[Stilly bay]

I was begging to hunt my lab last year and we shot over her at 4mos old...rock steady.
The trainer I was working with said to go to a preserve, have them plant HENS, and only shoot one gun over her.
His theory...hens can't spur a puppy.
....And they're cheaper.
I did and it worked great...she was a machine this year in her first real season.

a hen can really give a pup a good wing slapping though.

I wouldn't let a pup near a live/wounded pheasant ( hen or rooster) at four months old. at least not for its first encounter with birds. I certainly wouldn't shoot over the pup that young either.  but thats just me.

thinkingman Im glad your experience worked out, but if some one didn't know what they were doing they could really mess up a pup that young.  if the pup was used to gun fire and having pigeons and quail flap in its face during its formative retrieves, then I would say go for it and bust out the hen pheasants.