Pigeons

Well We've finally had some lost birds. Didn't think it would happen but after moving an additional 100 feet down the road I lost 5 birds. ;( Fortunately I released all but 2 and the others made their way back before the end of the day. To try and help the birds return I have been flying them from the loft for the last week or so.

Zoe - Had a setback. She has started jumping around when the bird flushes. Going to have to stop some of that and have been taking some time off to try and figure out what the best way of doing that will be. Unfortunately what I really need is someone to work behind. Baring that I am now trying to work her out of the scent cone and keeping her close to me so she doesn't have the "rope to hang herself with". Also doing some more stop and stand work with her. She is starting to get fidgety after a long mock flushing attempt. Can't decide if I want to work back to her and get her calmed back down or let her make the mistake and then make the correction. I will probably do a mix of these things and see where it brings me. Anticipate that walking back to her to settle her would probably be better initially - we'll see.

Pigeons

Well the pigeons are reliably returning to the coop from my training field now. Over the next couple of weeks I will hopefully stretch them out to my parents house as well as my other training areas (~30 miles). So far we haven't lost a bird but I do know some are a little slower to get back to the coop.

Oh - Zoe is reliably stopping to flush now. She is hopping around a little but I will hopefully take that out of her soon.

Pigeon Update

Well I'm actually starting to enjoy these birds....

Got them homing from about 50 feet away. Everything so far has been within sight of the coop. Next we will be going to where they will have to find the coop. In a week of so I will have them releasing from where I need them to be for training. They will have to be introduced to the traps etc. but I'm hoping that won't be to big of a deal. I have noticed that they trap MUCH better if they miss a meal. ;) I would think we all would.

A couple of them are getting brave and have circled the house a few times before trapping so things seem to be going quite well. I already have my favorites and so does Meg. Unfortunately Meg's bird is the only brown and white one I have so we'll see if that one makes it through the attrition faze that is bound to come. Did pick-up another nearly all white squeaker and he/she is going on the accelerated program. Seems pretty smart so far so we'll see.

Pigeon Coop

Well - it's finally DONE!!!! After to long a time I have finally managed to get this completed. We have a bunch of new residents as well. 16 young birds and 4 old birds. I expecting there to be some attrition from this being the first time I'm trying to raise them so I got a bunch to begin with. We'll have to wait and see how it all goes. Currently they are settling into their loft. The real traiing will begin next week. How to get back - i.e. trap training.

Pigeon coop

Well thanks to a patriot's day respite from work I have begun the construction of a pigeon coop. Surprisingly she who must be obeyed has not had a major objection to it's construction OR eventual location. So I am currently putting the finishing touches on the coop and will be searching for some residents soon. Should have a flock up and running by this summer assuming all goes well. Wish me luck.

Well things have slowed down here for the time being. Still trying to find time to build a coop. Hopefully this week will do it but the weather has not be cooperating. We'll have to wait and see

When is it Time to Steady a Dog

Well for those of us who want a finished trained dog this is always the question. Some people say that once the dog starts standing it's game you can begin the process others wait until they will let you flush. Me - I think it comes with a certain amount of maturity. We are asking them (the dogs) to do something against their nature to just stand a watch a bird fly so IMO they need the maturity to accept that what they could do they can no longer do.

For Zoe that time has come. I was running the dogs at a new location scouting for covers on some high ground since most of my covers are either under water or currently inaccessible. Well to make a long story short Zoe exhibited what I needed to see handling a couple of grouse with nice manners. This past fall she had handled the birds quite well pointing those she smelled which she has done since she was 6 months old as she was forced to the lead-off role when Ivy scratched a cornea the first week of the season and was put on the IR for 2 weeks. Yet this weekend was something different. She handled running birds like she was a broke dog. moving when they moved stopping and pointing when they stopped essentially trying to hold the bird without putting to much pressure on it to case it to fly.

Needless to say I was quite happy with her performance and she showed to me that she is now finally ready to begin the steadying progress. Time to build that pigeon coup and get it done over the summer....

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.