1st season

B

Beniciahd

New member
So my 10 month gsp has her first season thus year and we are excited. On the 18th we have a NAVHDA training session in the morning at a hunt club. I thought since it's opening weekend for the club I'll hunt her in the afternoon. My question is the choice of birds. Should I stick with just 3 pheasant or do a 6 Chukar hunt? Would 6 birds be too much on a new dog? She's had only a month of professional training so far and her nose is great but she does have a tendency to push birds. Thanks!
 
In general I like to keep young dogs birds that don't run a lot.

Here we are lucky enough to have wild quail and Pheasants. I keep the young dogs hunting quail most of the first season.

I have not trained or hunted with released Chukar, so I don't know how much they run
 
I can do Bobwhites. But I'm not sure how much the released quail and Chukar run on the ground, I'll ask. Thanks for the input!
 
I would go with the chukar. More bird contacts for the pup and an easier retrieve on a bird that might not be dead on the ground. An injured rooster will kick and spur a dog during the retrieve and thats not always great for a young dog.

If the cover is decent released chukar don't move much usually.
 
I hunt with labs so I know thing are somewhat different.

At 6 months my pup was on quail and had about 30 shot over him and he was catching a lot of them because they were holding so tight.

We then switched to hen pheasant and chukar, both were still holding tight as he caught 3 phez and few chukar.

I too would skip rooster because of the spurs.

We hunt 3-4 birds then head to the truck for a break being he's young
He's 8 months now and finding grouse, doves in the corn. Retreived a couple of geese and a dozen ducks longest 75+ yards on the water.

Good luck with your new pup this season!
 
Great suggestions! Sounds like a great versatile dog you have there. I'm going to try to get my dog on some duck/geese this season. She's done a little water retrieving but I just have to get her to sit still in a blind long enough!
 
From the advice of my trainer and some guys on here is to keep it fun and successful without ever overworking you pup, keep them wanting more.

My pup isn't real steady yet but I keep the time in the blind short, we do more pond jumping right now so he can romp around, have fun and experience different terrain, sight and smells.

He will sit/stay so we can jump the ponds, call him to heel and send him on blinds. This is all fun but I can't wait for pheasant opener.

Make sure them big honkers are pretty well toast before sending your pup after one, as you probably know they can be mean and probably wreck a pups confidence if it were to go after them. But every pup is different, some might be more timid if one came back at them and the next might send that prey drive through the roof.

Again good luck this fall with the new pup!
 
The NAVHDA folks will probably be a good resource. I was also concerned about your dog catching the birds. Maybe keeping some type of check cord on and you could handle dog on birds while someone else does the flushing and shooting ?
 
quail hound said:
I would go with the chukar. More bird contacts for the pup and an easier retrieve on a bird that might not be dead on the ground. An injured rooster will kick and spur a dog during the retrieve and thats not always great for a young dog.

If the cover is decent released chukar don't move much usually.
Click to expand...

I'll second what quail hound said. More birds contact, chukars don't run as much as pheasants and less chance of the dog getting spurred. But like Fnewguy said, talk to the NAVHDA people and see what they think.
 
Yeah I think I'll stick with the Chukar and see how it goes. She has had plenty of experience with them during training sessions. I'll have my daughter hold the dog on whoa until released to retrieve. Thank you everyone for the great advice.
 
Yep, just got off the phone with the trainer at the club. He suggests 6 Chukar. Firstplant 3 birds and flag them. Then see how it goes. If she does well, we do the next 3. Pretty excited!
 
I was just going to suggest the same thing. I have a pointing lab and I use chukar. I plant 3 at a time. Just far enough apart that when i flush one, it doesn't bump the next bird. Be careful with caught birds. Your dog may start to rush in on them. That is a problem I am dealing with right now. I am working on dechasing the dog. If he doesn't hold point, the bird does not get shot. He'll learn, after enough of them fly away that if he holds, he gets a retrieve.

Good luck!
 
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