Young Griffon 13 months does he have a bad noise or just lack of birds/experience

A

andyperry07

New member
Hello all, I have a 13 month old WPG who seems to baffle me. Somedays he looks great points bird from a good distance other days he runs right into birds especially pheasants he also appears to false point some , but his intense points almost always pay off with birds. To start off though and be fair we live in a very dry area of Wyoming full of cow poop and sage brush. While we do have some pheasants the numbers are not high and those are really the onlly birds he is able to get on. My questions are:

1. Should I be worried yet about possibly having a sub par nose?

2. Does anyone else hunt in dray sage brush with lots of cow scent and do you have some of the same problems.

3. Is only having him on running pheasants as of now going to be a big problem am I being to hard on him cause he only deals with running birds?

4. Is false pointing normal in younger dogs, and do any other WPG owners have this problem.

Thanks in advance for any information and also if there were some tests to do with planted birds this summer to test his noise.

Thanks
 
andyperry07 said:
Hello all, I have a 13 month old WPG who seems to baffle me. Somedays he looks great points bird from a good distance other days he runs right into birds especially pheasants he also appears to false point some , but his intense points almost always pay off with birds. To start off though and be fair we live in a very dry area of Wyoming full of cow poop and sage brush. While we do have some pheasants the numbers are not high and those are really the onlly birds he is able to get on. My questions are:

1. Should I be worried yet about possibly having a sub par nose?

2. Does anyone else hunt in dray sage brush with lots of cow scent and do you have some of the same problems.

3. Is only having him on running pheasants as of now going to be a big problem am I being to hard on him cause he only deals with running birds?

4. Is false pointing normal in younger dogs, and do any other WPG owners have this problem.

Thanks in advance for any information and also if there were some tests to do with planted birds this summer to test his noise.

Thanks
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1. Nothing to be worried about. The dog is still a pup by many standards. Make sure you use scenting conditions to the dogs advantage. Use the wind to the dogs favor, early morning outings are typically better scenting conditions.

2. Once the dog understands the preferred game scent, cow scent will not hamper his/ her abilities. But all dogs have there fun rolling in cow shit.

3. It could become an issue. If your using wild birds, target the areas and time when/ where they nest.

4. False points in a young dog are common. Every outing is a new training and learning experience for them. I always treat each point with a young dog as if it is the real deal. Teaching them to break point by using an "okay" command after walking in front of the dog for the flush can be handy at times. Now the trial hunters would go nuts! But I train the dogs for the way I want to hunt.

All breeds have there own hunting style, it's what the owner wants and how he reads the dog afield is what counts. Just get the dog out often and the light bulb will come on and get brighter with each encounter with birds!
 
I wouldn't be worried. Especially since he has good moments. Some dogs handle the teenage years well, some get a little goofy. Pheasants are hard on dogs. If possible, I would change my training grounds often so not to educate the birds.
 
If you have the ground I would build a small pen and get some Chukars for training. You can reuse the birds if you do not shoot them. I would have a check cord on the pup and I would also tie a long line to the bird with some sort of weight attached. I use a duck decoy anchor weight cut down enough the bird will fly off about 75 yds and land. The weight will make it hard to run as well. paint it orange or put a ribbon by the weight so you can find the end of the string when you need to capture or locate. This will get you and the pup lots of work. False points are common and mine still do it on fresh sign, where a bird has been sitting. I can always tell as the tail is moving somewhat. When that tail is solid is when I know it is penned down.:cheers:
 
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