another help thread LOL

[2point]

Hi guys, I am new here and mostly hunt waterfowl but did join a pheasant club that is close to my town in western Montana. I have a 18 month old female yellow lab. The first two times we went (I go once a month) she was great worked close and had a great idea from our previous mountain grouse hunts.

Went a couple days ago and the first bird she got up came right at me and behind me so I had to turn and was on ice, well no excuses I missed. This pheasant only flew 75 yards so my dog stays on it till she caught it and brought it back. I was like crap I want her to be excited around birds but she kept going as I was yelling no bird at her.

So then the next bird which was a black rooster only ran on her and finally got up out of range and once again she was out there 100 yards. She comes back of course jumps another bird, not a good trip I am thinking.

On a positive note from then on I never missed and the birds got up away from her, so we had no other incidents. My question what should I do to keep her close now that she ran down that one bird. I do want her to get crippled waterfowl she can retrieve a duck or goose for me at 100 yards that was winged or hit light, she is young and doesn't know, she does want to please. If I go hunt wild pheasants next year she can't do that. I am not real hot on shooting raised birds but it is the only close option here. I do have a shock collar. Thanks

 

[FCSpringer]

Hi guys, I am new here and mostly hunt waterfowl but did join a pheasant club that is close to my town in western Montana. I have a 18 month old female yellow lab. The first two times we went (I go once a month) she was great worked close and had a great idea from our previous mountain grouse hunts.

Went a couple days ago and the first bird she got up came right at me and behind me so I had to turn and was on ice, well no excuses I missed. This pheasant only flew 75 yards so my dog stays on it till she caught it and brought it back. I was like crap I want her to be excited around birds but she kept going as I was yelling no bird at her.

So then the next bird which was a black rooster only ran on her and finally got up out of range and once again she was out there 100 yards. She comes back of course jumps another bird, not a good trip I am thinking.

On a positive note from then on I never missed and the birds got up away from her, so we had no other incidents. My question what should I do to keep her close now that she ran down that one bird. I do want her to get crippled waterfowl she can retrieve a duck or goose for me at 100 yards that was winged or hit light, she is young and doesn't know, she does want to please. If I go hunt wild pheasants next year she can't do that. I am not real hot on shooting raised birds but it is the only close option here. I do have a shock collar. Thanks

Sounds like the perfect dog to me, want to sell her??
Chasing is good if your just starting out and she is young. Normaly this is what you have at say 7-8 months old but what ever. You need to take her back out of the field at this point and steady the dog to flush ,wing and shot. You also need to work on fly aways which will come with steadying. You will need a bunch of pigeons. And if you don't know how get someone who does. You should be conditioning the dog to the come whistle, hup and turn whistle. That is all stuff done at home to make that field experience more enjoyable. This is going to take time, not something you will do over night. You don't need the steady to flush wing and shot but it is nice. You can just work on fly aways and stopping her on moving birds. I don't like to stop a dog thats just learning to trail to let them hone that skill. Once they do it good consistantly, then I would start that. Also yard work and the hup whistle, you need the dog to sit where ever any time you hit the hup whistle. A trainer will want the dog for 3-4 months I would say, but that is never a definate. Some will take longer, some will breeze right through.

 

[MJinMN]

One more idea for you: once you've got her so she knows the "come" whistle, you'll likely be blowing that when she's chasing a missed bird. Once she turns around, sees you and starts coming back, no matter how far away she is, toss a dead bird for her to retrieve, making sure she sees it. After a few repetitions, hopefully when she's chasing a flyaway bird and hears the "come" whistle, she'll be more interested in coming back to you to see if maybe she'll get another retrieve.