Prey drive

BleuBijou

BleuBijou

Active member
What training techniques does everyone use to develop your new Pups Prey Drive ???????
 
clip wings, chuckers, pigeons or quail. Just barley tape the tip of one wing so they can really flap around and jump, almost fly. If they shy from the flapping I just use live pigeons with wings locked or deads for a while. Just toss em out in the grass and let the pup go get em.:thumbsup:
 
I read in a book (Training Pointing Dogs) by Paul Long
To use a 2 liter pop bottle 15 feet of string and tie it to the piegon's leg. The birds can fly about 4 feet off the ground go about 50 yards and replant themselves. I did this with my EP drove him nuts.
After awhile the pup would point a bottle or the string so it works but don't spend to much time on it. The best for my pup was when he learned to point the birds then I would just let them fly away. a few birds later we were shooting over him. That was the light bulb started turning on for him. Fun to watch.
 
GE has a good thing there too, but we do it a bit different. Just pull the main flight feathers off and you get the same affect. If you don't pull enough off it can fly too far. But about 3-4 on each side it will do the same thing. And then you don't have string and all that stuff to deal with. We call them sucker birds. Dogs can flush them and they fly real low for about 50-100 yards and land, with the dog right on his hinny. That gets them all jacked up and chasing well. But we do the clips first.

PS U may have to experiment on a couple to get the number of feathers down but then it is real easy and works great. too few and it can fly too far, too many and it can't fly. I can do it right now on 99% of them.
 
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As a real young pup, I started with a fresh killed quail. Then moved to PR quail. Then to pigeons.

Don't go to fast, or you can have some dire consequences. Instead of a bottle tied to leg (Which is just a fantastic idea BTW... You can vary the weight of the bottle...) I've used carded birds.
Don't let them get hung up in trees though. It's a real PIA trying to climb trees to get birds out of them! :)
 
Great job guy's , let's keep the training ideas coming in!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is great, is that there is a dozen way's to skin a cat, so I want to hear them all!!!!:10sign::10sign:
 
BOIL THE CAT FIRST sory blue you walked right into that 1 but seriously just get the birds and let the pups work them and get crazy about them and then introduce all the fancy stuff
 
I'm not sure I quite understand the need to develop prey drive. Seems to me that it's an inherited tendency in a decently bred dog to want birds. I don't think it hurts a pup to put it on birds right away, but at the same time, I don't think it's going to be detrimental to a dog if it doesn't get bird exposure until it's 8 or 9 months old. So I guess my answer to the question is "nothing". If they see birds when they are young, fine, but I don't think it's a necessity...at least not with Spaniels.

As far as the carding goes...I used carded pigeons to steady Rocky and it worked like a charm. I could reuse the pigeons, and for some reason they seemed to stay planted a lot better when they were carded, even though the cardboard wasn't keeping them down. I'm not exactly sure why that was. Must of the time they'd fly about 50 yards and land in heavy cover. I could then go catch them by hand, or send Rocky to retrieve them. When I fired blanks at the bird while it was flying, it kind of simulated a shot bird since it would hit the ground not long after I fired the shot(s).
 
cockerfan said:
As far as the carding goes...I used carded pigeons to steady Rocky and it worked like a charm. I could reuse the pigeons, and for some reason they seemed to stay planted a lot better when they were carded, even though the cardboard wasn't keeping them down. I'm not exactly sure why that was. Must of the time they'd fly about 50 yards and land in heavy cover. I could then go catch them by hand, or send Rocky to retrieve them. When I fired blanks at the bird while it was flying, it kind of simulated a shot bird since it would hit the ground not long after I fired the shot(s).
Click to expand...

Another advantage to a carded pigeon is that you can fly them out, and don't have to plant them. That way, your scent isn't all over the location of the bird. Just a little more natural. I understand that there will be scent all over the card and stuff, but...

Dogs are smart critters, they'll ground track ya!
 
FCSpringer said:
GE has a good thing there too, but we do it a bit different. Just pull the main flight feathers off and you get the same affect. If you don't pull enough off it can fly too far. But about 3-4 on each side it will do the same thing. And then you don't have string and all that stuff to deal with. We call them sucker birds. Dogs can flush them and they fly real low for about 50-100 yards and land, with the dog right on his hinny. That gets them all jacked up and chasing well. But we do the clips first.

PS U may have to experiment on a couple to get the number of feathers down but then it is real easy and works great. too few and it can fly too far, too many and it can't fly. I can do it right now on 99% of them.
Click to expand...



Got any pictures of feather cutting?? I would like to see that.
 
Let them chase squirrels or rabbits.

Nothing is better for building drive.

if need be, you can break later if necessary, but thats what Whoa is for.
 
cockerfan sometimes even the best bred pups need a little help nothing much just enough to turn the switch on
 
I am sure there are instances where that might be true, but I think that for the most part, "cultivating prey drive" is way overstated. If a dog doesn't naturally want birds, I'd probably just get rid of it and try again. Only one time have I seen a bird dog pup that wasn't nuts about birds. It was a 5 month old gsp and it was very timid.

All just my opinion of course...to each his own...
 
cockerfan said:
I am sure there are instances where that might be true, but I think that for the most part, "cultivating prey drive" is way overstated. If a dog doesn't naturally want birds, I'd probably just get rid of it and try again. Only one time have I seen a bird dog pup that wasn't nuts about birds. It was a 5 month old gsp and it was very timid.

All just my opinion of course...to each his own...
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I am going to give a for instance on this. One of my GSP pups is very mellow and I call him Timid. He could care less about a dove landing in front of him or playing , wing on a stick. He listens to everything I say at 14 weeks old. Lay down, he lays down. Calm as a cucumber. Had me worried until I took him out with some Chukar with weights and strings. I mean this pup could of cared less about anything except what he wanted to do. Those birds changed that pup and he chased and tracked scent and one Chukar flew 80 yds and he chased, found, grabbed it and made a direct line to me and delivered to hand without harming the bird. That dog never barked, until the ride home, he wanted those damn birds. Could that happen at 8 months ? Maybe!!! I want to know what I am up against, so I can try and fix or correct any problems asap! I will let them chase birdsat this puppy stage, but fur, no way. That can be a bugger to fix and they always run across those rabbits in the field. I would rather break him on chasing birds! I know I will have to break him on fur at some point, but if I don't allow now it will help later... My other pup , I could tell right away he would be birdy and do not have the concern, although he doesn't listen at all and is a nut like most bird dog pups. These pups are very well bred, however there is always that one dog that keeps you guessing. I feel now , he will be a joy to train and not a headache like his brother!!!:cheers:
 
@ cockerfan
Instead of saying Prey Drive maybe getting the pup focused on birds? is a better statment?

Blue glad to here the pups are doing good:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
I dont have a pointer but I think it is just as important with a flushing dog. When I first get a new pup I like to leave some pheasant wings laying around the house. Maybe hide them under the kitchen table a few to the side of the couch. Get them use to using there nose not just sight. So when they are running around the house they find them. When I use to live in the city with just a small backyard i would hide a some wings in the plants and walk around the yard with them until they found them. Just a couple times doing that and when I had wings in my hand they knew what was about to happen. Once they get the hang of that and are use to a gun and have basic obdiance figured out. I just put them on live birds. 1 week in Southdakota can change any bird dog for the better:thumbsup: Right or wrong it has worked for me so far.
 
Younger the better--8 weeks rather than 8 months. I've known a lot of dogs that were searching, pointing and retrieving at eight months or younger.
 
I would do clipped wings way before the bottle - I had trouble with the weight of the bottle and it gets caught in grasses, the dog points it - not ideal

http://bestgundogs.com/wp-content/uploads/ClippedWingPigeon1.jpg
http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/wings/clipping.gif

those pics give the general idea

I have also seen a pigeon with a rope tied to its legs that a handler simply holds to get the pup worked up, the bird can't fly away anywhere so it flies some and flops etc - really gets that pup going. Then you can move to clipped wings

Chuck
 
Chuckles said:
I would do clipped wings way before the bottle - I had trouble with the weight of the bottle and it gets caught in grasses, the dog points it - not ideal

http://bestgundogs.com/wp-content/uploads/ClippedWingPigeon1.jpg
http://www.guineafowl.com/fritsfarm/guineas/wings/clipping.gif

those pics give the general idea

I have also seen a pigeon with a rope tied to its legs that a handler simply holds to get the pup worked up, the bird can't fly away anywhere so it flies some and flops etc - really gets that pup going. Then you can move to clipped wings

Chuck
Click to expand...

Thanks for the picture. I had no idea it was that easy:cheers:

I do like the string idea because I would have the girls fly them like a kite before I would plant them. Help them stay put.
I have bought a launcher now but that willl be another topic:mad:
 
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