Tips to get lab to hunt

[beginnerhunter]

I have a purebread black lab. We got her last winter and now she is 1 year and 2 months old. She knows all the commands and obeys well- we've been playing fetch w/ a ball with her since we got her. We recently took her out to begin to pheasant hunt- and she isn't catching on. She won't pickup the smell/trail. What tips do you have for us? Did I use the ball too much and now she's on the sight instead of the smell. We are avid hunters and our other 2 labs hunt w/ us. Could it be that she needs to hunt on her own as she may be slower. Any tips you have for us would be appreciated. We will try anything!

 

[bomonster]

I have 4 labs, all were a year or 2 old when i got them, definatley not well trained but they have figured it out all on their own. Give her a little time. 1st pheasant you shoot keep the wings and start hiding them in the yard and see it she'll find them. This seems to work with most dogs. I have wrapped a wing around a small football and started tossing it tall weeds/brush and they went in and found it and brought it back.

 

[crockett]

1st pheasant you shoot keep the wings and start hiding them in the yard and see it she'll find them. This seems to work with most dogs. I have wrapped a wing around a small football and started tossing it tall weeds/brush and they went in and found it and brought it back.

x2 for playing "find it" wiht pheasant wings. We started the 'find it" game wiht pieces of milkbone around the house just to help her to burn off puppy-energy. We would go and hide little treats all over the house and then let her out of her crate and say "find it". After pointing her in the right direction once or twice she would do it on her own - searching the whole house and then doing it again to make sure she didn' tmiss anything! Would keep her busy for hours! Then when she wsa about 5 months I started doing the same with wings in teh backyard. I'd put her in the basement, close the door, then go and hide a few wings. let her out and tell her to "find it", rewarding her when she did. If your lab is as food-motivated as most you could try that to get her started.
As far as hunting alone, I agree that she might get a better chance to stumble on a bird and "learn the game" if the other labs aren't there to do it before her,but at the same time there might be more exciting stuff going on if the veterans are around and she might pick up the idea from them flushing birds for you to shoot etc...
Some of the how-to books, including the newly updated DVD versions of Walters classic books, suggest that you get a live pheasant and clip its fligh feathers, put it into hedgerows and have the dog go in and catch and retreive it. I don't know about you, but it's not that easy for me to get my hands on a pheasant here in Nova Scotia, so I had to work with wings and wild birds. For the wild birds I took her to a place where there is no hunting allowed, but there are lots of birds. We went several evenings a week after work and covered the habitat - I would send her into cover saying "find it" or later "hunt 'im up" and hope that she stumbled on a pheasant. SHe got it pretty quick and once she put up a few feathery balls of cackling fury she definitely go the idea!
Good luck!
-Croc

 

[sage]

well i have a black lab and i used a pheasant feather. then about sep.she was 7 months i got some pin rised quile and she did alright... she was 8 months for oct pheasant season, i took her out just to get her out.. well i shot one then i took the bird and let her smell it and lick it.. then after that she was a hunting machine... im not saying it works for all dogs but it work for sage... so good luck...

 

[crockett]

She's an absolute beauty! That's a classic lab look that says: I'm smart, I'm keen and I live to make you happy master - let's DO THIS! lol!
-Croc