pointer

P

podge

New member
Hi all , my 3 yr old english x german pointer is setting alot when out hunting but 9 times out of 10 theres nothing there , any ideas whats wrong or how to correct him . Thanks in advance
 
That sounds to me like a dog that has not figured out pheasants yet.
Especially if the dog has been trained on planted birds or tight sitting quail that don't run.

How many pheasants has the dog been on? It takes them some time to figure out the process.

If I am understanding what the dog is doing there is nothing to correct. Try to flush a bird and then release the dog to relocate.
 
Dog has set and retreived a good few pheasants and snipe , was trained off of another dog that was 100% .
 
I had an owner bring me his dog back after I had trained it for 4 months, it was doing the same thing. Problem was, every time it would point, even if it pointed a cat in the yard, he would tell the dog "good boy". Eventually the dog caught on that he got positive praise when he would point. So he pointed all the time at nothing. It took me another month to get him broke of it. So be careful on how you approach him. When they go on point, I try to say absolutely nothing until I flush the bird.
 
Take him to a pasture where u know there are no birds at. Take 5 pen raised birds and plant them with a lot of distance in between them. If he points anywhere except where u planted the birds walk through in front of him, kick once and walk on. Dont say a word to the dog. Ignore him if he tries to get your attention too. When he does finally point a bird, dont say anything. Walk a complete circle around him flush the bird and dont give him praise until he retrieves it to hand. You want to make sure the dog knows that it gets praised when the bird is in hand not when he points it. I would only put out one bird when I tried to break that other dog. Thats why it took so long. I would put out five if I were you. You can use a small cage and cover it up so you can reuse the birds if you wanna keep cost down. But as posted earlier, if you're hunting wild pheasants, they will move on the dog. So he may not be doing much wrong just doesnt know when to release after the bird starts running. If he doesnt false point at all and points all 5 pen raised birds when you take him out, then there is no problem. If they hunt enough they will figure out the pheasants when they move. My setter took till age 4 to figure it out. My Vizsla was 5. But once they got it, they would pin them in really well against the hunters.
 
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