Winged bird

Kent Fastlead 1 3/8 will make a difference. 50 or so more pellets. You teach tracking a crippled bird in the off season, not in season. But you have a puppy, not a seasoned dog. I use a live tethered pigeon to a pull a rope and drag it. Increasing the length and difficulty. I usually start around 4 months or so. I watched my male track a crippled bird for a 1/2 mile across a cut milo field one time. He went out of sight and was gone for 10 minutes. We saw him come up the hill a 1/2 mile away. As he got closer we could see a crippled bird in his mouth. Some dogs have it and some don't. My current dogs are not in the same league as my old dog was. They are good dogs but not anywhere close to what some of my others were. All trained the same way. Not every dog will excel at crippled birds.
 
westksbowhunter said:
Kent Fastlead 1 3/8 will make a difference. 50 or so more pellets. You teach tracking a crippled bird in the off season, not in season. But you have a puppy, not a seasoned dog. I use a live tethered pigeon to a pull a rope and drag it. Increasing the length and difficulty. I usually start around 4 months or so. I watched my male track a crippled bird for a 1/2 mile across a cut milo field one time. He went out of sight and was gone for 10 minutes. We saw him come up the hill a 1/2 mile away. As he got closer we could see a crippled bird in his mouth. Some dogs have it and some don't. My current dogs are not in the same league as my old dog was. They are good dogs but not anywhere close to what some of my others were. All trained the same way. Not every dog will excel at crippled birds.
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I agree not all excellent, the ones that do almost seem to enjoy the cripple hunt more than the initial find. The good trackers almost seem obsessed, putting out extreme effort.
 
westksbowhunter said:
Kent Fastlead 1 3/8 will make a difference. 50 or so more pellets. You teach tracking a crippled bird in the off season, not in season. But you have a puppy, not a seasoned dog. I use a live tethered pigeon to a pull a rope and drag it. Increasing the length and difficulty. I usually start around 4 months or so. I watched my male track a crippled bird for a 1/2 mile across a cut milo field one time. He went out of sight and was gone for 10 minutes. We saw him come up the hill a 1/2 mile away. As he got closer we could see a crippled bird in his mouth. Some dogs have it and some don't. My current dogs are not in the same league as my old dog was. They are good dogs but not anywhere close to what some of my others were. All trained the same way. Not every dog will excel at crippled birds.
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My first lab,male yellow, hardly ever lost a bird.My current 11 year old is great,but has never been great at winged birds.My puppy has run down a few, but just stops a lot of times,I don't know why.
 
Should have trained it. All those comments about how you should never train a dog and just take it hunting, what you are experiencing is a direct result of this. Dog is playing and looking to flush a bird then bring it back when it falls like all labs will, but has no concept of needing to use its nose to search for a hidden bird and how to track said bird since it's probably just random flushed birds its whole life so far.

Might be too late but never know, but youll need to train blind retrieves using dead/clipped wing pigeons to start so it knows how to use its nose and builds a drive to find it. If it doesn't have the drive to keep looking, itll never happen. Most start this at 3-4 months to build that natural drive into the dog from the start. Its hard to do it later, especially after a season of hunting already.
 
KEOutdoors said:
Should have trained it. All those comments about how you should never train a dog and just take it hunting, what you are experiencing is a direct result of this. Dog is playing and looking to flush a bird then bring it back when it falls like all labs will, but has no concept of needing to use its nose to search for a hidden bird and how to track said bird since it's probably just random flushed birds its whole life so far.

Might be too late but never know, but youll need to train blind retrieves using dead/clipped wing pigeons to start so it knows how to use its nose and builds a drive to find it. If it doesn't have the drive to keep looking, itll never happen. Most start this at 3-4 months to build that natural drive into the dog from the start. Its hard to do it later, especially after a season of hunting already.
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I think he has the goods.
 
Bob Peters said:
I figured if you took Mr. JONES out with River he would learn from her how to track one that got peppered but is on the run.
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To as certain extent she has helped him,but she was never great at finding running birds.Last week she had one,but she let it go,and it disappeared in the cattails.River is 11 years old.mr. Jones is 1.
 
Are you talking dog sees it down but then doesn’t pursue? Or doesn’t see it down and then won’t pursue the trail?

If it worked for it and saw it down it’s all passion finding that bird- if you have to use dead bird that’s when training and knowing it has a job come in.

Your dog needs to be better if it gives up in knee high grass. Obviously dogs are better than others at this but it needs the training and drive man to at least try. Thats lazy as shit. That’s stuff a dog does that “ goes hunting” not a true hunting dog in my opinion.

Your dog is still very young but you better start working with it so it knows that’s part of the job description
 
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