First Bird Dog

chemist said:
I agree that the GPS can be clunky and a bit of a pain. I eventually broke down and bought a watch that connects to the GPS handheld by bluetooth. The GPS handheld is fixed to my chest so that it is not nearly as bothersome to have the bulk. Seeing where my dogs are is no more effort than checking the time on a watch. Going this route is not cheap, but nothing about this sport is and for the amount of time I spend in the field it is well worth the expenditure to me. I am however glad the beepers work for you and I am not suggesting you change a system that works well for you.
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Yeah I might be biased because I'm a tech junkie, but the GPS systems are so worth it in my opinion. I literally never worry about where my dogs are or if they are chasing things. Which makes the hunt way more enjoyable. Not to mention the quietness of it. No calling the dog back every 15 minutes, just check their location and maybe collar beep if they are going a wrong way.

I had one point this year where my dog was in the thickest brush ever and I was only 20 yards. Would never have been able to figure it out without the GPS and I was able to shoot the bird as I walked into it.

The watch is really the icing on the cake. As you said it's like checking the time and you know if they are doing well.
 
LittleBigHorn22 said:
Yeah I might be biased because I'm a tech junkie, but the GPS systems are so worth it in my opinion. I literally never worry about where my dogs are or if they are chasing things. Which makes the hunt way more enjoyable. Not to mention the quietness of it. No calling the dog back every 15 minutes, just check their location and maybe collar beep if they are going a wrong way.

I had one point this year where my dog was in the thickest brush ever and I was only 20 yards. Would never have been able to figure it out without the GPS and I was able to shoot the bird as I walked into it.

The watch is really the icing on the cake. As you said it's like checking the time and you know if they are doing well.
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I love GPS collars as well. Worth every penny for the peace of mind in my opinion. I have a cabin on 40 acres in northern Minnesota, and pre GPS collars, you just hoped the dogs learned to stick around, they all did, but there were times you didn't know where they were at and it's nerve wracking. Now they just wear their collars and I know if they're snooping around 50 yards behind some pines or 200 yards in the woods and need to be reminded to come back.

I also never have to worry about losing my dog, which I almost did with my first pup. Chasing Ruffed Grouse with a 8 month old dog, the bell she was wearing kept getting quieter and quieter until I couldn't hear anything anymore. Wouldn't recall to the whistle, no response when I would correct her with the generic e-collar I bought. I was panicking thinking I lost her until about 15 minutes later she showed back up. No more worrying now.
 
Matt D said:
Not sure I follow this? If not needed put it in a pocket and let it ride there. Also why would you have to look at it all the time? If the dog goes missing you use it. Other wise you don’t.
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Clunkyness, the size being 2-3X bigger than the controller I have now. And with the setup I have now I can reach down without looking and beep a dog if I need to find them. In thick cover with pointing dogs I watch those that have GPS and they're constantly looking to see what the dog is doing. I don't want to do that. If a guy does, great.
 
Here is my take on the GPS units, if you have more than one dog hunting, yah, it might be hard to try to keep track of where they are. Personally, I like to always know where the dog is and I am always ready when a bird flushes. If I ran more than one dog (I really would have no need for that), I would lose that connection watching some video screen. I do have a e-collar (sportdog), it has a locate feature which works great. If I (my dog) gets into deep cover and I don't have a bell on him, or I have the bell and he managed to get where I can't hear the bell or is on point, I just hit the locate. Someone asked me if the locate flushed the bird when he is on point. I really made an effort to see if it did or not. I never had a bird flush when I used it and found the dog on point. Some folks or maybe some pheasants in other areas might be "wilder" and react differently to noises, but here, it just doesn't seem to be an issue. I only hunt 20 some outings per season, which provides for as many birds I can get ate. Someone posted something like that this is an expensive or not cheap activity, I just don't see it that way at all. I guess you can spend as much money as you want, but it will have little to do with the end result. Teach that dog basic commands, get some sort of e-collar, any shotgun will work and get hunting. Watching the the dog do amazing things (not a screen), is most of the fun to me, but many it seems it is not. I didn't grow up-inside playing video games, that might be the difference, I would be curious on the ages of some of the posters in this thread. Good luck with the dog and your choices, you have been given a wide range of advice to choose from.
 
remy3424 said:
Here is my take on the GPS units, if you have more than one dog hunting, yah, it might be hard to try to keep track of where they are. Personally, I like to always know where the dog is and I am always ready when a bird flushes. If I ran more than one dog (I really would have no need for that), I would lose that connection watching some video screen. I do have a e-collar (sportdog), it has a locate feature which works great. If I (my dog) gets into deep cover and I don't have a bell on him, or I have the bell and he managed to get where I can't hear the bell or is on point, I just hit the locate. Someone asked me if the locate flushed the bird when he is on point. I really made an effort to see if it did or not. I never had a bird flush when I used it and found the dog on point. Some folks or maybe some pheasants in other areas might be "wilder" and react differently to noises, but here, it just doesn't seem to be an issue. I only hunt 20 some outings per season, which provides for as many birds I can get ate. Someone posted something like that this is an expensive or not cheap activity, I just don't see it that way at all. I guess you can spend as much money as you want, but it will have little to do with the end result. Teach that dog basic commands, get some sort of e-collar, any shotgun will work and get hunting. Watching the the dog do amazing things (not a screen), is most of the fun to me, but many it seems it is not. I didn't grow up-inside playing video games, that might be the difference, I would be curious on the ages of some of the posters in this thread. Good luck with the dog and your choices, you have been given a wide range of advice to choose from.
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Knocking on 40 yrs old and have never been a gadget guy so it doesn't appeal to me really yet. And for the expense of this sport, my buddy and I were just talking about this. I joked about all the shit our small little group travels with these days and that we killed way more birds 20 yrs ago rocking with old beat up pickups, homeade wood dog boxes, and pump shotguns.
 
GetTothePoint said:
Knocking on 40 yrs old and have never been a gadget guy so it doesn't appeal to me really yet. And for the expense of this sport, my buddy and I were just talking about this. I joked about all the shit our small little group travels with these days and that we killed way more birds 20 yrs ago rocking with old beat up pickups, homeade wood dog boxes, and pump shotguns.
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The TLDR and moral for the original poster: Never lose site that it is your dog and you should train it to the objectives you want out of your dog. When I got my first bird dog I had no shortage of folks telling me what training objectives I should have for the dog. i.e. let it range vs keep it within 30 yards and quartering. Let it break on the shot to get on the bird quick vs have it steady on shot because dogs can't mark in tall grass anyways. And ontop of that within a single training objective there is typically more than training method to get there regardless of the training objective. When folks are giving advice (myself included) I believe it is as important to understand why they are suggesting what they are than it is to understand the steps they are telling you to go through. If someone says it is the only way to do it, chances are they are an idiot and you shouldn't listen to them. An example is that GetTothePoint and I clearly have different takes on GPS collars even though it sounds like we have very similar objectives for our dogs when we go out hunting.

There are only really two pieces of advice that I think are almost universally agreed on. The first is that you want to do your introduction to gunfire slowly and cautiously. Mainly because a gunshy dog is difficult to fix. The second is that it takes birds to make a bird dog. Your dog is simply not going to be top notch until it has bird contacts under its belt, and it is going to get better the more bird contacts it gets in an environment that leads to your training objectives.


GetTothePoint: I actually identify with almost everything you have typed. I am 37 years old and also not much of a gadget guy. Hell in my truck I still have a crank handle for the windows, don't have power locks and have a manual transmission. My largest hangup on "upgrading" my truck isn't the cost it is the fact that I don't want a screen in my face while I am driving. We are not very apart there.

For my GPS, I set an alert that will let me know when my dog gets to far away. In thick cover that is normally set at 250-300 yards and in thin cover chasing huns it is normally set at 500 yards. I pretty well only look at the GPS for my dogs location when I get an alert that it is either outside of the set range (rare) or is on point. The vast majority of the time I see my dog work the birds and watch it go on point. Though there are times where the dog goes on point and the GPS helps me shoot the bird for the dog much like your beeper collar helps you in the same scenarios.

My preference is to simply watch the dogs work and have a relaxing hunt without stress. The reassurance that if things go sideways I have the GPS coordinates of my dog makes that hunt more relaxing for me and lets me a bit more in the moment. I have hunted with folks that are constantly staring at their GPS and it makes me scratch my head as well. I went on a week long hunt with a family member. We were not hunting our dogs together but rotating. When his not very well trained dog was on the ground he was constantly checking the GPS and trying to whistle her in. When she was not recalling he was getting all spun up. Later that trip his GPS was dead so we strapped my collar on his dog and I carried the handheld. He told me at the end of the hunt it was the most enjoyable hunt he had the entire trip because he could watch his dog work, not worry about the GPS and not get spun up about her range. The truth is I was frequently getting alerts that she was 250 plus yards out but as long as she was checking in every few minutes I was not worried about the range and didn't tell him. We even shot a covey of quail that she pinned while we covered 200 yards.
 
I would hesitate on the socialization aspect right now with an unknown canine virus floating around. Unless you know for a fact that the other dog(s) you plan on having them around aren't sick. Groups of unknown dogs is too big of a risk at this time. Just a suggestion.
 
The GPS unit and collar is fantastic. I rarely look at the screen and when I do it is briefly to get a bearing on where the dog is. Often cover is taller than the dog ... long stem bluestem grass, cattails, or dense woods ...

I miss next to nothing looking at the screen and actually may see the dog more because I am not looking in the wrong direction.

When the dog goes on point in tall or dense cover ... you get a signal and know to proceed in that direction ... you also know that you will not attempt to call a dog off point.

Plenty of threads on this site. General consensus that I have observed on these threads is that the Garmin is the best hands down.

I have used the Garmin Astro GPS unit for 10 years now. I was a bell guy the prior 30 years. I have used a bell a few times since starting on the GPS ... including this year actually ... After 10 minutes I pulled the bell off. Not a bell guy anymore.
 
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Congrats. ENJOY! I have my 9th pup coming in July and it is still crazy exciting.

I'm gong to squirrel off in another direction in regards to indoor pups with motors, which is often most of them.
I believe you can do A LOT right now to help your pup be a welcome house dog.
I have an over riding philosophy to train SLOW....meaning most pups, not all, don't need to be ramped up to do their thing. If pup is over amped, you slow down (body speed, voice, breaks between skill repetitions)
I hold my pup a lot in one arm until she relaxes. Body goes limp and you can feeler heartbeat slow down. We do this before every feeding time. Pups lean to enjoy the time and I feel like it helps with bonding. Pups learns it fun to go do my natural thing but also nice to come in and be with my adult partner for short times and relax. It takes a bit to relax at first during feeding as pup smells food but they soon get it. We do it periodically through out the day as well if the pup starts to amp up and in between skill training and on walks. I like the idea the pup learns there are GO times and CHILL times through out the day.
I feel it goes a long way into helping a pup learn to switch it off in the house as they age.

The crate becomes a safe enjoyable place to start with and is critical to having a nice house dog. Do a good job with the crate...cover the crate with quilt will help pup relax...it needs to sleep to grow and the crate is obviously important throughout its life when you're not available to watch it or for travel.

I like "place" training as well. It's easy really and can be started the first week with constant observation. I like a dog that will lay on a place when we have too much going on. i.e. company over or adult/family quiet time. It also has allowed me to have my dogs with me more. For example when I'm working on something that needs my attention in the garage or workshop and pup can't snoop around and get into seething bad.

I wish you all the best with your new hunting partner.
 
Hunt that dog as often and as early as you can. Next fall is not too soon at all. The more experience the better.
 
After some rain, sleet, snow and 1,600 miles Maverick Vonbirdfindr is now home.
Thanks for all the suggestions and tips. I'm sure I'm bound to screw it all up 😆.
He will do great I'm sure as he is from a strong blood line. Picking up some frozen quail this weekend to get his nose working ASAP. He is definitely going out this fall. I already have the daughter tapping the frying pan in the other room while we feed him.
 
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