How many birds would you lose/find without a dog?

Springer22 said:
I started really working on “ dead bird” at the end of the season and have been few times a week since. Doing good, hopefully it translates. I lost a few this year from wild flushes dog didm’t see. If dog flushes and marks very confident. I also have to get better at marking.
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I think it's real important to have a command that puts a dog immediately into search mode, especially when they have no clue a bird's been shot. I use "fetch". When we're playing, my dog knows it means get that dummy, toy, ball, etc. & bring it to me. When we're hunting, same thing but with a rooster.
 
"Dead Bird" and practice with dead birds. Then practice with wing clipped game farm roosters. Some might only use wing clipped Wild roosters from public land, good luck with that.
 
Springer22 said:
I started really working on “ dead bird” at the end of the season and have been few times a week since. Doing good, hopefully it translates. I lost a few this year from wild flushes dog didm’t see. If dog flushes and marks very confident. I also have to get better at marking.
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This is the easiest and most fun training you can do with a pup. I watched my dad start my 1st dog to search and find with a walnut (couldn't afford a ball;) ). He picked up a walnut, rubbed it in his hands to get his sent on it, tossed it a few times. Then waited until the dog wasn't looking, chucked it, then called him in and started calling dead bird. I was amazed when he found it!!
 
Wind River said:
"Dead Bird" and practice with dead birds. Then practice with wing clipped game farm roosters. Some might only use wing clipped Wild roosters from public land, good luck with that.
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I get the sarcasm, but here is a side bar - in many states failure to immediately kill a wounded bird once in your hand is illegal. Definitely a Federal offense on waterfowl.
 
Bob Peters said:
I was hoping in south Dakota you would have hunted with Sage or Ace. They know the lay of the land really well. Only rule is no gauge smaller than 16 and no grab ass.
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Heck yeah.Those guys hunt some great places.I don't think I was in their area.I took 90 from Minnesota to Mitchell, then hunted north to the nd border.I saw some birds, but they were very educated. Knocked on one door, really nice people, great cover. Then a cold blow came in from the north,and I had to beat feat home.
 
BRITTMAN said:
I get the sarcasm, but here is a side bar - in many states failure to immediately kill a wounded bird once in your hand is illegal. Definitely a Federal offense on waterfowl.
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Some might take personal offense, but this is best practiced at a controlled environment of a game farm.
 
birddude said:
This is the easiest and most fun training you can do with a pup. I watched my dad start my 1st dog to search and find with a walnut (couldn't afford a ball;) ). He picked up a walnut, rubbed it in his hands to get his sent on it, tossed it a few times. Then waited until the dog wasn't looking, chucked it, then called him in and started calling dead bird. I was amazed when he found it!!
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I’m having a blast with it. Might be more fun for me than the dog! I mix it up and do different things and at different places.

Lately I’ve been faking the bumper through, and then when she’s running i throw it in the other direction in some cover. I use a bunch of different things, usually just the bumper with a wing attached though.

Or hide it before she’s even out of kennel, let her sniff a bit and then yell dead bird and watch her kick into gear! Like I said hoping it translates, always different in training it seems.
 
I used to do the hidden bumper etc. training and don't think it hurts, but now I'd say: NUMBER ONE, get a dog with a very high prey-drive, a very high desire to CATCH every downed bird. Number 2: STAY OUTTA THE FALL AREA and let the dog do its thing. Several times when hunting with others I've had them tell me my dog was looking in the wrong spot, only to then watch my dog catch their wounded bird "in the wrong spot."

Wild roosters will often try to slink away from your pointing dog, so that they flush from behind or beside you. Throw in uneven ground providing bad footing when you turn to shoot, and a 25 mph wind, and they can be very tough to hit solidly. I pass on long shots but I'd still guess that I'd have no better than a 75% recovery rate, if that, without my dog. It might indeed be 50%.

It may not be illegal but I'm sorry, I do consider it unethical to hunt wild pheasants without a dog that is at least decent at recovering wounded birds.
 
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Wind River said:
Some might tak/\e personal offense, but this is best practiced at a controlled environment of a game farm
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Yep and it is not illegal on a game farm. I have used limited flight chucker successfully in training my dogs. I was referring to wild birds regarding the immediate kill laws.

It has been my experience that game farms are great for training bird dogs. There are some concerns to work around or be aware of ... but I will take a game farm game bird over pigeons in a thrower any day of the week.

I do not judge or try not to anyways ... I do not hesitate to say what works for me ... others on this site love to judge game farms ...
 
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birddude said:
This is the easiest and most fun training you can do with a pup. I watched my dad start my 1st dog to search and find with a walnut (couldn't afford a ball;) ). He picked up a walnut, rubbed it in his hands to get his sent on it, tossed it a few times. Then waited until the dog wasn't looking, chucked it, then called him in and started calling dead bird. I was amazed when he found it!!
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Had a guy tell me once to throw his labs tennis ball over the house. It was all downhill on the other side and all thick timber with grass. I was playing fetch with him in the front yard and the guy said "throw it over the house", i said how far and he said "as far as you can throw it... He will find it". Sure nuff that dang dog brought back the ball every single time within maybe 2 minutes. That is when i realized how good a dog's nose really is. Makes sense though, they can sniff out a pinch of cocaine in a hookers butt crack from across an airport.
 
BRITTMAN said:
I get the sarcasm, but here is a side bar - in many states failure to immediately kill a wounded bird once in your hand is illegal. Definitely a Federal offense on waterfowl.
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Yeah dont get caught doing that on wild birds in Iowa. But you can buy birds from the farms and do it all you want on public land, within the legal dates, if you band them. The bands are 10 cents each.
 
BRITTMAN said:
I get the sarcasm, but here is a side bar - in many states failure to immediately kill a wounded bird once in your hand is illegal. Definitely a Federal offense on waterfowl.
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Yeah I'm putting a big thumbs down on using live birds for anything. Not ethical.
 
I saw these 2 guys from Illinois, they had no dog. I put them onto a public spot. They wounded a bunch of birds.That was stupid of me to do that.I also saw two pimps from California driving a new suburban in there.Has to be the internet. Thumbs down!!!
 
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