Retrieving Dead Birds

[Tmjohnson21]

I have a 6 yr old German Wirehair Pointer who is a great hunting dog. We went out this weekend for the first time in a 1.5 years and he started right where he left off in terms of pointing birds. I am a college student that attends a school out in North Carolina, but live in Nebraska, so I was unable to hunt/ work with him all that much recently. One thing that he seems to have "forgotten" is retrieving downed birds. He will run to the general direction of the downed bird and then just keep working. He did a great job of tracking down a "winged" bird that was on the ground running, but on another occasion, he ran right past a bird that was deader than a door nail. I have a few breasted out pheasant carcasses from this weekend's hunt that I can work with. What should I do to get him back on the retrieving track?


Thanks in advance for any advice that can be given.

Tom

 

[kansashunting]

I have a friend that has a whole pheasant frozen in his freezer (perk of being a bachelor) that we use as a training aid. The dog can't chew it and its an actual bird so they can smell it and get a mouth full of feathers. It has helped my lab enourmously this year. Before he would chase running birds down fine and then dead or alive he sometimes leave them where they lay and then other times bring them part way back and then drops em'. But since working with him with the froozen bird he's done loads better. He had a full retrieve to hand this week. He retrieves ducks on the water fine its just getting him comfortable with a mouth full of feathers. Just an idea for you

 

[Tmjohnson21]

Ya he used to be great at tracking down the birds and bringing them right to hand, but lately he hasn't been doing that.