Got a diver. Any suggestions

[KsHusker]

To the OP, since this post was revived I re-read the whole thing and a thought popped into my head... actually a question. How are you walking in to flush the bird? Walking along side the dog encourages creeping in because you have become competition. Same thing with another dog there... it's competition. Have you tried circling around and coming towards the dog (but not directly at it)?

Agree with possibly above.


2nd thing - is the dog doing this on pen birds? What about wild birds?

Dog could be doing it on pen birds as they will smell different and the dog knows the difference. My first dog never liked pen birds and would always act differently with them so I just never used them and only ran her on wild birds. Taking a wild guess, pun intended. :thumbsup:

 

[PheasantWhisperer]

Definitely a competition thing. She does fine by herself. She did it on pen and wild birds. I think it stemmed from mice and dove. When she was a pup, she would point a mouse, then pounce on it. When dove hunting, a lot of times she would point the dead one. I'd say fetch it up and she would dive in and grab it. And when you do this a couple hundred times....I noticed she started doing it again this fall after a couple of good dove hunts. So I think its a matter of her figuring out the difference between hunting dove, quail, pheasant; grouse here in another week, oh yeah, and prairie chickens. They frustrated her a few days ago. So did the heat. She's just gonna have a learning curve. She honors very well. Doesn't creep or move. But if she was in the lead she would pounce. Hunted some on monday. She didnt do it, but she was tired also.

 

[mnaj_springer]

I think dogs can recognize the different smells (dead vs alive, pen vs wild) much better than we give them credit for. Bird hunting barely scratches the surface of their scenting ability, especially when you consider they can detect cancer by scent and differentiate all the smells at an airport while zeroing in on possible explosives.

And a dead bird has to smell different (blood, gunpowder, etc.). Experience could cure that. Which young dogs lack.

 

[KsHusker]

I think dogs can recognize the different smells (dead vs alive, pen vs wild) much better than we give them credit for. Bird hunting barely scratches the surface of their scenting ability, especially when you consider they can detect cancer by scent and differentiate all the smells at an airport while zeroing in on possible explosives.

And a dead bird has to smell different (blood, gunpowder, etc.). Experience could cure that. Which young dogs lack.

I wholeheartedly agree -- I'd guess she will grow out of it eventually. I'd just ignore it when she does it and praise the daylights out of her when she does it correctly. I'm sure with enough repetition she'll quit or mostly quit the annoying behavior.


To sidetrack this a bit - I met up with another local aspiring real estate investor the other day - presently he is in the Air Force as a dog handler/trainer - we had a pretty good discussion about that - I had been under the impression they'd be able to take the dogs home to bond with them more and get to know them better, but they cant do that due to all the money the Govt has wrapped up on the animal - was thinking he said $60k to maybe $100k plus for each animal. We talked about how differing scent conditions can affect the dogs ability to smell and relayed my own experiences with my dogs when out in the field and how they have been oblivious to birds at times etc and how I'd be scared to death on a bad scenting day to rely on a dog to find explosives for me (if on IED patrol) - but maybe the explosives scent carries more, I dunno -- either way was a fascinating discussion and sounds like some of the dogs they have are just complete machines and work with any handler - some are just dumb -- they even called one dumbass as it's hopeless as a working dog lol - - I hope to connect with him again soon. I dont think the local AFB has any GSP's - he stated they tend to use those when they are operating more in the publics eye and want to be more approachable/ interacting with the crowds as they are less intimidating to people. Guess it made sense.

 

[Curious]

Yes Military treats their dogs differently that local PD do. As you stated military handlers are not allowed to take their dogs home with them. Also as you stated military dogs have to work with a lot of different handlers. When a handler changes duty stations the dog does not go with him. This can happen numerous times to the dog since handlers are usually only at their base for a couple of years. Local PD handlers can work the same dog for its entire career, you just don't see that in the military.

The other thing is military dogs are trained for detection (Drugs or explosives) and protection. So you wont see a GSP or lab. While those dogs would be great at detection work they don't really have the drive to do the protection aspect of the job.

Sorry to the OP as I know this post dosent really address his original question.

 

[mnaj_springer]

Back to the OP's issue... My young pointer was jumping in on birds over the weekend. I'm not sure if it was excitement or a disregard for the rules, or both. But I caught her red handed, she pointed a woodcock and when I went in to flush she jumped in. I said "NO!" then set her back and made her stand for a couple minutes. After that she was much more solid.