Sight vs Scent

Well had a humbling experience this past weekend. I always knew this but the point was driven home loud and clear. When you involve a bird dogs nose their training takes a back seat.

Up until the weekend I have been working Zoe on stop and stand still using the conveniently available robin population in the yard. Well never being one to be comfortable with a small amount of progress I thought it best to up the ante so to speak. So.....I decided it was time for some launcher and pigeon work. So I plant 2 pigeons in launchers in the field and being working toward them. I remembered to always work on stop and stand still before working your dog on a bird so we did that a few times and Zoe did real nice. Next up - the pigeon. I decided I did not want to involve scent so I worked up wind of the bird. She's working well, OK, were close so launch the bird. WHAT!?!?!?! The bird just hops and goes no where. Now bear in mind these birds are NOT tethered. GD pigeons.....well whatever. I get my dad to flush the bird and make Zoe stand. She does OK. Alright that went Great.....yeah right. OK calm yourself and the dog down by doing some more stop and stand still. That took allot of time to get her back to a calm state.... Alright second bird....hand my Dad the transmitter. Alright work towards the bird with a pup who's now really driving. Raise my hand to have the bird launched.....no bird.....raise it again....no bird. What the Heck is going on. Tell Dad to turn the transmitter to the second launcher.....by now Zoe has scent.....try and get her to stand quiet.....bird goes up and dog moves with the bird (well at least the bird flew). Finally get her stopped and settled down. She stands BEAUTIFULLY....well I guess that was worth it.....do a few more stop and stand still's on my way out of the field and put her up.

So lets review.....1. good flying birds are imperative, 2. learn how to use launchers (actually I was pretty proud of myself as I had remembered to pull the safety pins this time; Once while using them for stop to flush work with Ivy (older dog) I forgot that little fact), 3. Scent to a bird dog adds another level of distraction.....

Jeez I felt like I had never trained a bird dog before after this little episode...

The difficulty in keeping quite.

So as I wrote yesterday with the abundance of Robins here in the past few days we have begun to utilize them in a non-traditional way. i.e. stop to flush.

This morning the birds were back. Yesterday I had to restrain Zoe from making a run at them so I was expecting more of the same today. Much to my surpirse she was extrememly cautious with them. To the point where I was able to give her the que to stop and stand still then walk out in front of her and "flush the birds". The First time she went about 8 feet before stopping on her own. Walk back and correct her - calmly. The next time (lot's of birds) when I went to flush she only took a step. Walk back and corrected her - calmly - then spent some time stroking her up to let her know she was doing good. Ok - Enough with the robins for today. Do a couple more stop and stand stills on the way back to the kennels (away from the robins) and she did nice.

Still a little hesitant about allowing her so much sight pointing. She has pointed birds without seeing them before but we'll have to wait and see if this will be something I will have to overcome in the future.

Well right wrong or Indifferent I have begun a routine with Zoe. Every morning now when she first goes out we work on he stop and standing. We have been fortunate lately that there have been a number of robins in the yard so we also can work on stop and stand following a flush. While I really don't want her working robins while in the field I am willing to take a chance with it now. My thought on this are that they while exciting are not nearly as exciting as having the scent of a bird in her nose. So we will be using the local robins as our first baby step in the steadiness process.

Welcome to Spring

Well Spring has finally Sprung here. There have been woodcock in the yard for the past 2 weeks and we are left with one lonely Male trying his best to convince a female that he's the most wonderful thing in the world. Traditionally we will have 1-2 woodcock nests in and around the yard each year so he's got a pretty good chance.

Dog work has begun. We have stepped back a bit from last fall and are endevoring to get back to where we were. On the plus side I will be beginning work on the pigeon coop in the near future. Materials have been procured and a line on some squeakers has me wanting to get it done. A location still has to be determined but I have an idea of where will be good year round.

The dogs are starting to get back in shape as well. Both have some weight to loose but don't we all.