There is no rush to train a pup on birds but there are a few key things that need to be done to make a good bird dog. Exposure at a young age is critical, which is what we've been doing with Savi. We've done this in a safe way, not letting the bird scare her, paying close attention to her body language and without any gunfire. She's a pup and it needs to be fun and we want to pull out that natural instinct. Letting her run in the field on a checkcord builds confidence, draws out her natural hunting skills and teaches her to work away from me.Yesterday, we started with the pigeon in the trap and just let Savi loose in the field to find it and she did. She also wanted to eat the tail feathers! Mike, our trainer then took the bird out and as you can see Savi is pointing the pigeon.
The pigeon was released and Savi is marking the bird, watching to see where it flies to. If you look closely, you can see the pigeon in the picture. And then off she goes to chase!
Only pups and green dogs are allowed to chase. This builds confidence, drive and enthusiasm.
Savi's now looking to see if we have any more birds for her. Savi has had just a couple of mini-field training sessions, attended a number of hunt tests and goes with us every week while we train Jam and Monty. This is in addition to obedience classes, shows and all the other fun places we take her makes her a well socialized, confident pup.
1 comment:
Very neat to see how bird training is done.
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