Giz/Emma and everyones pets on the board

"have a couple of grouse wings in the freezer for Reba." ... bet you'll teach her to be veeeeeerwy quiet...hehehehehe... we're hunting wuffled gwouse...

 

If she is from hunting stock as opposed to show stock, she will hunt because of instinct. Your job is to steady her to wing and shot. The absolute first thing she needs to learn is to "Whoa" on command. That is the basic building block for any upland pointing breed. You are only perfecting style, her ability to hunt and find birds is already there. Wing training on a started dog really doesn't do a whole lot. Work on basic obedience and control and then allow her to find her own comfort level in the field for the first year. She will no doubt surprise you with her natural abilities to find birds.

 

Here's our 4 legged creatures. We also have chickens, turkeys and honey bees.

 

Your four legged creature - black and white on the bottom row - is that a rat terrier? Below is a picture of our three rat terriers and Cricket is the black and white one in the middle. It is a little blurry as it is hard to get them to stand still for pictures when they are in the woods.

 

Here is a better one of Cricket.

 

Left the wife home, with a freshly stocked wood bin ... This time I kept the splits small. It really kept the coal bed down, and tatoo and kazoo loved it...

 

That is quite the crew right there, love the pics

 

I would call them, cool cats, but they're not, they're nice and toasty cats

 

Definitely from hunting stock. The breeder we got her from is top notch. We got our last setter from him, while he was in W. Virginia. She's seen birds (pheasant and quail) and so-far has responded with occasional point. We don't have much of either here. If I can manage to train her, it will be on grouse and woodcock. The problem here is my time. She is smart and figures out things quickly. Example: I have a bell set up on the door to let the other dogs notify us when they need to go outside. She picked up on that after day two without any encouragement.
Thanks for the insight. I'm glad somebody, finally, confirms what I've always felt. So much time and money has been spent on "trainers" that exploit the fact that a bird-dog will want naturally want to find birds. It's just a matter of getting them to do it to your standards.

 

Not sure how I missed this thread.

This my 7 year old Boxer Judge.

 

Judge looks very regal sitting there. Nice looking dog.

 

What's your dog doing when it thinks you're not watching?

 

Thats a good one Brian..

Me and our Emma just had a slow run out in the fields tonite.

 

Looks as if she is asking "are you done, now?"

 

Dave..Here she was asking what in the hell are ya doing with the truck in here dad??

 

Love watching animals play n romp like that , very entertaining , and they can make you smile and laugh even on a really bad day

 

Man does that look familiar, Brian, pure joy there, just happy to be alive.

The last addition to my pack was a couple of brother hound dogs, most of the time they keep each other occupied quite well. One of them must not have felt like playing on the day the other decided to ATTACK THE WALL!

 

Wow. I was worn out just watchin that.......................