Hunting With 2 Dogs By Yourself

M

Mo_GSP

New member
Does anyone on here have 2 dogs that they hunt with at the same time?

I'll give you a little background. I have a 4 year old female GSP, and a male GSP about 20 months old. For some reason about a year ago my female decided she didn't want to hunt anymore. Just showed no interest at all. Well, I buy the male, and work with him. I'll just say, for the most part I'm very pleased with him. Anyway, last week I decided to take both of them to the game farm I generally hunt once a week. To sum it up I was totally surprised by both dogs. The female actually out-pointed the male. Really no problems to get excited about. Well, yesterday I bought a hunt for the wife and I consisting of 4 pheasants and 10 quail. Normally I just get 10 quail. It was a circus to say the least. The male is a BIG runner. The female stays fairly close. He would not hold his points. Especially if he saw the female coming. She was the same way. I HATE having to shock either one. But I seemed to have to hit them a lot. Another problem I noticed is the competition. They will literally tear a bird apart to see who can bring it back to me. Not good!

The main reason I have two dogs is because I wanted to hunt behind two. There has got to be a way to fix these problems, but I can't figure it out.

Can anyone give me some help? Hopefully this is not going to cost a fortune to have a pro trainer to fix this. And I really don't want to leave one set while the other one hunts. These hunts on average take about 90 minutes, with 10 quail.

Thanks
 
I hunt all the time with 2 dogs. Mother and daughter. Always competition to bring the birds back. But mine are flushers. From what I understand about pointers you need to teach them to back. When one points the other dog honors that point and stops to point the first dog on point. You will probably need to get some pointers at least from a professional trainer. At least learn how to do it and get out in the yard to practice.
 
Yes I always hunt with more then one pointing dog. Sometimes three or four are on the ground. Teach them to back. This is a must or your problem will only get worse.
 
I hunt with a herd of pups, they all back! Sometimes it is the agressive one who don't want to yield, or worse yet make a beeline to the other dog and creep up on an steal their point. It takes some help. You could make a cut out of a dog on point, put it in front of a quail, and with both hands to work with praise up the dog, even if you have to put him in a backing position. It helps to make them absolutely staunch on point, I mean you can rub all over the dog, have a conversation in front of the dog, thrash around searching, the dog should stay where it established point. If that is good, go to backing, and make sure they establish that when they see the other pointed dog. Release only with a pat on the head, to relocated the back. I had a pointer all white with a liver head, cast her with a mud gray shorthair, both ran aways, the shorthair would in variably point in a "hell hole" of a ditch. We walk past her on point, we relied on her bracement to find her! and relocator her, sometimes a long way off! I like the seeing 4-5, find a pointing dog, seperately lock up when they found it, some coming back, or across a field, one across the ditch, a couple running the edge. Worse part is your have to shag down there and flush the birds, and shoot! I have seen some dogs when exposed to backing dogs, learn it for themselves. I doubt if it will take to long for yours.
 
I have 2 setters that i hunt together all the time. I have not had much problem with hunting them together. But they backed naturally and then I spent some training time on it as well.

I would hunt the pup on his own 4 -5 hunts. Get him standing his birds on his own. Then hunt them together. I think you will see some of the issues will go away with some age and experience.

But if you are going to hunt multiple pointing dogs at the same time, they have to back.
 
what part of mo are you in.I live around columbia,and would be glad to help you if you want. I have 2 gsh, plus pigions and quail
 
sadie said:
what part of mo are you in.I live around columbia,and would be glad to help you if you want. I have 2 gsh, plus pigions and quail
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Thank You for the offer. I really appreciate it.

I live just north of Springfield. I'm going to talk to the owner of the game farm that I hunt. He really likes my dogs and has pointed out a few little problems he sees. If he has time to help me I'll go that route first. If not I'll get back with you and come up your way.
 
It seems everyone agrees that they must back each other. I agree. But what I see is the competitiveness between the two. If the male is on point he'll hold his point until the female sees him and as soon as she gets near he'll bust the bird. As I said the male covers a lot of ground. So when she's on point and he sees her there's almost no stopping him. He comes running full blast and busts the bird. Sometimes it's within gun range and sometimes not.
 
sadie said:
thanks guys, if you had any birds I come out and hunt with you. and maybe K:D
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You do know that I had the Cat throw that basketball game so I would not have to hunt the last 2 quail in Mo. This year we would have gone ahead and won. You may have more birds this season.
 
Mo_GSP said:
It seems everyone agrees that they must back each other. I agree. But what I see is the competitiveness between the two. If the male is on point he'll hold his point until the female sees him and as soon as she gets near he'll bust the bird. As I said the male covers a lot of ground. So when she's on point and he sees her there's almost no stopping him. He comes running full blast and busts the bird. Sometimes it's within gun range and sometimes not.
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There is a difference between a dog who is learning and doesn't back and the dog which willfully, sees a dog on point, knows it has birds, and beelines over there to steal the point, and or flush the birds. They rookie needs slight correction, the dog who steals point, knows better, but does it anyway, may need a firmer hand.
 
Mo_GSP said:
Does anyone on here have 2 dogs that they hunt with at the same time?

I'll give you a little background. I have a 4 year old female GSP, and a male GSP about 20 months old. For some reason about a year ago my female decided she didn't want to hunt anymore. Just showed no interest at all. Well, I buy the male, and work with him. I'll just say, for the most part I'm very pleased with him. Anyway, last week I decided to take both of them to the game farm I generally hunt once a week. To sum it up I was totally surprised by both dogs. The female actually out-pointed the male. Really no problems to get excited about. Well, yesterday I bought a hunt for the wife and I consisting of 4 pheasants and 10 quail. Normally I just get 10 quail. It was a circus to say the least. The male is a BIG runner. The female stays fairly close. He would not hold his points. Especially if he saw the female coming. She was the same way. I HATE having to shock either one. But I seemed to have to hit them a lot. Another problem I noticed is the competition. They will literally tear a bird apart to see who can bring it back to me. Not good!

The main reason I have two dogs is because I wanted to hunt behind two. There has got to be a way to fix these problems, but I can't figure it out.

Can anyone give me some help? Hopefully this is not going to cost a fortune to have a pro trainer to fix this. And I really don't want to leave one set while the other one hunts. These hunts on average take about 90 minutes, with 10 quail.

Thanks
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As far as the dog pointing then busting the bird(s) when he sees the other dog, I would go back to the yard and work on WHOA until you can stop him first time, every time regardless of distance. If you hunt with him before he is responding perfectly in the yard, just remember DO NOT give a command you cannot enforce as that will just teach him to ignore you.
 
2 is more better n 1.
017-1.jpg
 
Whoa is great, but what happens if you are in a situation where the running dog can see the pointing dog and yet, you can't see either? Just teach the dog to back on it's own, so you don't have to worry about it.
 
The above drahthaar (Willy) learned to back on his own. The french brittany(Yogi) is the older dog and he does his own thing usually creeping in and pointing next to or right behind brotha Willy. They make a good team together and although not perfect I wouldn't change a thing with how they've been working together lately.
 
V-John said:
Whoa is great, but what happens if you are in a situation where the running dog can see the pointing dog and yet, you can't see either? Just teach the dog to back on it's own, so you don't have to worry about it.
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Just as I try not to give a command I can't enforce, how can I respond to a situation I am not aware of? Remember you are talking to a pointing dog owner, I don't walk on water, raise the dead or have x-ray vision, only flushing dog owners do all that.

Do you not consider Whoa to be the foundation command for teaching a dog to back? I agree that the ultimate goal is for the dog to back on it's own but if a pointing dog doesn't back, how would you teach them to back without first teaching whoa?

Which brings up another question: Is honoring or backing an instinctual behavior or is it learned behavior?
 
Dog Gun Time said:
Just as I try not to give a command I can't enforce, how can I respond to a situation I am not aware of? Remember you are talking to a pointing dog owner, I don't walk on water, raise the dead or have x-ray vision, only flushing dog owners do all that.

Do you not consider Whoa to be the foundation command for teaching a dog to back? I agree that the ultimate goal is for the dog to back on it's own but if a pointing dog doesn't back, how would you teach them to back without first teaching whoa?

Which brings up another question: Is honoring or backing an instinctual behavior or is it learned behavior?
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Absolutely not, whoa is not foundation command for backing. (in my opinion) None of my dogs even know the word whoa. They ae taught to back on their own. They see a pointing dog, they back. Its easy to teach with a launcher. So honoring is a learned behavior.

(I chuckled at the flushing dog comment though. :D )
 
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