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game birds that they soon give up chasing.
Rabbits and hares are a particular problem to some trainers. The trick is to
“enter” your dog as you would a falcon. As most know through watching my
videos, I use bob white quail to train my dogs. I breed them
in large quantities so the pups get quite used to hunting for game scent,
then seeing birds fly off they soon learn they cannot catch by chasing. It is
not a method I would recommend to anyone who has less than large quantities
of game. I also keep a few hens running around the yard which the dogs soon
learn to ignore. A similar effect could be achieved by regularly releasing
homing pigeons in front of your pup and teaching him that it is not such a
good idea to chase. Pointing
Successful
dog training involves telling your dog how it can achieve the desired aim of every predator. That is to kill
quarry. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, it is! The first
thing I do with my bird dog pups after teaching them to come to call and pay
attention to me when we go on walks, is to teach them to use their noses and
to hunt by scent. This is such a simple thing that many trainers do not
understand it! How can a raw pup taken fresh from the kennel be expected to
know how to use it’s nose? Or what scent to hunt for? Certainly, a dog can
smell with it’s nose, but we want it to use it to effect and discrimination.
I have owned dogs (but not for long!) that have learnt the former but not the
latter. Let me explain. At the moment, this year’s youngsters are
flying around my fields chasing swallows. They are using their eyes to track
the swallows |
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and it is all a big game. I doubt if they have
thought to use their noses. But they are in for a shock! To achieve this realization
about scent, I cut
the meat up into small chunks and scatter these chunks around my fields. It
is meal time and the pups are hungry. First time out, the pups find the meat
by accident. But as soon as they realize there is stuff out there, they start
to hunt and use the wind to discover the meat by scent. As they get better at
it, I scatter the meat over a wider and wider area. Those that do not hunt
and find meat go hungry. That way, I don’t get many non-hunters! The next stage is to teach them
to point. Simple. I lay out a line of dizzied pigeons or
quail about three or four metres apart parallel to the wind, i.e. the wind is
blowing from pigeon Number 1 down the line to pigeon Number (say) 4. The
ground cover (grass for preference) should be sufficient to hide the pigeon,
but not too long, say between 4 inches and 12 inches. If
you don’t know how to dizzy a bird, have someone show you or watch a |
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video. Bring the dog on the lead upwind towards pigeon no. 1. Stop
about 5 feet from the bird and wake it gently poking it with a long stick or
a fishing rod. The dog may be interested to watch the pigeon flying off. Keep
a tight hold on the lead! After a few moments, slowly bring the dog forward and let it
sniff where the bird lay. Repeat for no. 2. By the time you get to 3 or 4,
your dog should be pointing. If it is solid on point, you can try it off the
lead but let it drag a light check cord and let it find and point another
pigeon planted somewhere in the field. Don’t forget to work the dog into the
wind and catch hold the end of the cord when the dog gets near the pigeon.
You just need to lightly restrain the dog in case it runs in and catches the
pigeon which MUST NOT HAPPEN. Most trainers go wrong by attempting to train
their dogs to point when birds won’t lie, or before the dog understands about
scent. When birds flush to your dog, gently restrain it and if you can, make
it sit or drop to wing. The problem with dizzied pigeons
is that they cannot see the dog coming and do not flush. Because of this, a dog can easily catch them. Once a dog has caught a
pigeon on the ground you will have the devil’s own job convincing it that it
can’t do it again. In short, you have an unsteady dog; or at best a dog that
is potentially unsteady. That is the beauty of
using bob white quail. They can be used in a number of ways and will usually
flush |
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when a dog gets too close, which of course is
exactly what wild game will do. The traditional way to train a bird dog to
point is to take it up, on the lead, beside an older experienced dog that is
on point and encourage it to point alongside the older dog by soft words and stroking. Then the pair are taken slowly
forwards to flush the birds. This method has the advantage that the pupil
learns from |
Dogs in
Falconry………...page 3
By Derry Argue |
