pigeons

2cockers

2cockers

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I plan to use pigeons this off season to get my dogs some work. My question is, whats the best technique for planting them? Ive read about spinning them around in your hand and stuff but it wasnt the best description. I just dont wanna end up either killing the bird and waste it or making it so dizzy it wont flush. I also dont wanna plant the bird and have it immediately take off. Also when it comes to clipping wings, is it pulling out feathers or cutting the ends off? And which feathers? Any tips or resouces would be appreciated. Thanks guys
 
Dizzying pigeons is not an exact science, I do it regularly and still have a few that fly away or are trapped. Here's a couple of tips though.

Don't feed them just prior to using them. If they have seeds in their crop it will fly out of their mouth when you spin them and they won't fly. If they do have seeds in their crop, you should push it down w/ the index finger on the hand you are spinning them w/ to hold the seeds down.

To dizzy a pigeon, simply hold the bird in one hand and rotate your wrist to get his head to "helicopter" around in a circle. After a few seconds, stop and see if his head is leaning to the side, if not spin some more. When you see that his head is a little off kilter, throw him so that he hits the cover and walk away.

Don't stay around and look at him and don't let your shadow cross over him if it's a sunny day. If you plant more than one pigeon and one gets up and circles over the others it will probably cause them to get up too so you might want to shoot the one that got away.

For clip wings, you can pull feathers but it might cause an infection if you intend to keep the bird awhile. Cutting the flight feathers w/ scissors is preferable but my favorite method is to use a small amount of vet tape to blindfold the bird. They won't fly because they can't see and you can remove it and turn it into a flyer whenever you want.

Some people use tape or rubber bands over the feathers to make a temporary clip but I haven't seen it work very well myself.
 
Last year I used piegons to train my pointer and what I would do is get a one liter pop bottle or a piece of wood with a 12 foot string and tie the bird to it so it can still fly but not real far or high. I would have the kids fly the birds like kites till they got tired then plant them. I would leave the birds for 15min so they could rest and the birds sent cone would be heavy.Easier for the dog to find them. If you hunt a flusher the birds may take a beating but piegons are tuff. I had ten birds I kept for two months in a dog box till I shot them for the dog. You will notice with piegons dogs get bored with them? Then treat them chuckers or something.
 
goldeneye said:
Last year I used piegons to train my pointer and what I would do is get a one liter pop bottle or a piece of wood with a 12 foot string and tie the bird to it so it can still fly but not real far or high. I would have the kids fly the birds like kites till they got tired then plant them. I would leave the birds for 15min so they could rest and the birds sent cone would be heavy.Easier for the dog to find them. If you hunt a flusher the birds may take a beating but piegons are tuff. I had ten birds I kept for two months in a dog box till I shot them for the dog. You will notice with piegons dogs get bored with them? Then treat them chuckers or something.
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I did all most the same thing. I tied a 12x12 piece of cardboard to one leg. they could fly 50yards or so then replanted themselves:thumbsup:
I never had any luck getting a dizzied bird to flush and created too many problems with my weim.

Funny story I had one little pigeon I got from a guy that got away 2 times in my neighborhood and came back the next day. I then took him to a shooting area 10miles from my house. He got away again and 2 days later that bird showed back up. I was going to shoot the little stocker but ended up giving him to a dog trainer for his coop. Have not seen him since :D
 
the way i do it i dizzy the bird and then tuck his head under one of their wings and then put them in some cover and then let the dog look for it once they find it and point it i walk up and flush it ,let the dog chase it and once it is 30 yards or so fire the gun ,no reaction to the gun i do it a couple of more times. once im sure the dog has no negative reaction to the gun i will shoot a bird over the dog.
 
Iâ??m assuming from your avatar that weâ??re talking about flushing dogs. The suggestions to â??tuck a headâ?� and use a launcher will teach your cockers to slow down on the flush (if not actually point).

Pointing dog trainers plant differently than flushing dog trainers.
 
Nimrod said:
Iâ??m assuming from your avatar that weâ??re talking about flushing dogs. The suggestions to â??tuck a headâ?� and use a launcher will teach your cockers to slow down on the flush (if not actually point).

Pointing dog trainers plant differently than flushing dog trainers.
Click to expand...

Very good point, pun intended :cheers:
 
correct, I have two cockers and a golden. Im really just out to get them some field time and be able to find, flush, and hopefully retrieve something. During the season I see so few birds and drop even fewer, that they really dont get a whole lot of experience. I figure dropping some pigeons for them would give me an opportunity to work with them one on one. Right now I never wanna leave any of them behind because I dont want either of them to miss out. If I knew I could see birds everytime afield I wouldnt worry about it I could just alternate. Btw the pigeons will be caught or trapped from my place and neighbors farms, I dont plan on raising or re-using them, I just dont wanna have to keep re-trapping them cuz Im either killing them or letting them get away.
 
Do what Nimrod said. I like to hold the bird gripping by the belly with my index and midle finger on each side of the brest just below the neck,like a curve ball, holding the wings tight to the body. Helli the bird as Nimrod said and when you look at it it sould be wiggling its head rolling it's eyes back some, and looking drunk, give it a few more spins for good measure, drop the bird in not so hard it bounces and on it's back. If it bounces up they will fly sometimes. Walk away quickly. Make sure you create a pocket of flattened grass so the bird can flush easily, about the size of 2 basketballs. If you just throw it in heavy cover the dogs catch them alot.They will stay there for a long time, but in just a minute or so they are ready to fly. If they volenteer, you need to dizzy them some more. We also use electrical tape on the wing at the end a few wraps all the time with great sucess. You can take it off when done to reuse the bird or turn it into a flyer that way. Everyone in our club uses electrical tape and it works verry well.
 
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You can also use velcro on a wing it seems to work well, as far as dizzing i would say nimrod and fc springer have explained that well as in anything practice makes perfect.
 
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