GSP with no interest

H

Hossdog

New member
I have a 1 yr old GSP that show no interest in birds what so ever. I finally found some pigeons so today I planted the bird and put the dog on a 20 ft lead. First off he does not want to leave my side so I walked around the bird and nothing.. So I showed him the bird he sniffed at it and that was about it. So I put him back in the pen and took the other dog out and ended up killing the bird. I then swapped dogs again and with no lead I let him smell the bird I put it on the ground and nothing so I threw it out to retrieve and he never left my side..I am at my wits end on this dog when I take them both out for a walk it takes him forever to leave my side.. What can I do about that and not being birdy at all
 
how old was he when you got him, something is scaring him from getting away from you, and if you did not get him at an early age you do not know what that might be. Somewhere along the way something has scared him and it might have been an early exposure/ introduction to birds that did not go well. Just a thought, hard to tell with out seeing the dog and seeing how he acts. Best of luck.
 
I got him as a pup. Haven't used a collar on him.. The only thing that could of scared him was the electric fence he has got into its couple times.
 
You have a young dog that just has not developed the self confidence to leave your side and go out and hunt. I would stop training and just take the dog bird hunting as soon and as often as you can - and do nothing more until you've hunted 3 - 5 times and see what happens. Trying to train a dog to hunt is impossible. You can only fine tune the hunting instinct. My two cents worth. :eek:
 
GSP no desire to hunt

I feel BritChaser has good advice. I would like to add, when hunting do not shoot. If possible run him with a dog that will hunt. That may cause him to become interested.
 
If you have a place where you can run him safely in some grass or cover, I would do that as often as possible. Don't talk to him, just walk around, let him get out away from you. Just you and him to start with.
 
maybe try a bird wing on a fishing pole, with a short piece of line.tease him like a cat ,short sessions in the back yard,get him in the thought of chasing things.you can do it often without traveling to the bird ground
this is the opposite you'd do with a more aggressive dog, but he needs confidence chasing and hunting
 
Try a live bird in hand and let it flap around like crazy. Move it through the air , in front of his nose and make it a game. Keep doing this !!! Tie a string with a weight around the birds leg! Let the dog see the bird walking and play chase! Do not put to much weight on the bird! Just enough where it can only fly 30-50 yds before tiring out! Do it in the open, where the dog can see everything! You get excited as well when you see the bird! Have fun with it!!! I hope this will spark a response!!!!! Keep doing it for a while!!! Keep us posted!
 
I have tied elastic to a pigeons leg and the dog just don't want it. I have put a e-collar on him but haven't turned it on I just wanted him to get use to wearing it.. We are on 450 acres I take the dogs for a walk all the time and it takes the GSP awhile to get away from my side and run with the other dog. Like I was saying before the only thing I can think of that made him this way is that he got bit by the electric fence a few times. I can shut the fence off but then I don't want him to think that it will always be off because when we have cattle in this section it will be on. I will keep working with him. I think the biggest reason why it's aggravating is before I moved to this place I had a decent size backyard and he loved to fetch a ball and now it's like he don't care. Now on a kinda funny thing and a lesson learned or more like I knew better but did it anyway.. I put a pigeon in a small plastic kennel in the field it had a small hole in the top but not big enough for the bird to escape. I let my other dog out and he was burning through the grass and ran past the bird and he put the brakes on. The bird was at about a 45 degree angle from him, he jumped straight up in the air and went head first into the small hole up top then all I seen was the kennel fly about 4ft in the air and nothing but feathers flying. So the next day I put elastic on the pigeons leg and planted him out in the grass. The dogs tore up my check cord so I used a nylon rope ( this is where I knew better but did it anyways ) sent him out he found and pointed the bird I told him to whoa and he did, the I kicked the bird up and he watched it fly until It hit the end of the elastic and hit the ground..and he was off to the races all I could do was smell burning skin as the rope ripped threw my fingers... Ouch. Next time I will have gloves on.
 
Whom did you get him/her from? Pedigree? Possibly he is a show dog, hunting instincts breed out. He should tell you story, you should be able to read him. Meaning he should show intrest in a bird, or fear of a bird. Fear can be overcome. If he was bred for show, I doubt anything can be done. I've seen a few in my days that look dead on shorthair, but I often wonder. I know one that isn't very birdy at all that has the muzzle more of an English pointer, outside that, looks dead on shorthair, no natural instincts to speak of.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top