I have a 9 month old GSP that has taken to chasing flying birds when i take him out for a run. His training is going relatively well but i cannot yet get him to stop and sit him once he has locked onto the flying birds. Is this a problem or just "normal" for some pups? Part of me thinks he will realise that he cannot catch them and give up and another part thinks i need to nip it in the bud?

Any opinions or insight welcome

Thanks

Perhaps working the dog with a check cord and a belly hitched loop to tighten around the mid section. Rick Smith teaches a similar set up and it has worked well with my dogs. The cord and the belly hitch are the same rope. The idea is to send message, not squeeze the dog to injury. You want the dog to be enthusiastic and at 9 weeks this is desireable behavior, but nine moths is time to get it corrected. Having said that, my 5 year old will chase bugs and catch them in mid air, but leaves the birds alone.

Great dogs. They make our lives better!!!

I never had a bird dog worth a hoot that did not wants to chase birds. Who break him in the yard! Do not use the command in the field yet.
He should also come when you call him every time.

The dog should be flash pointing, if not take him to a field and let him bump egrets and other trash birds. Once he starts flash pointing thats all you need. He needs to know what gunfire is by now also.


Get some pigeons and Get a check cord and let him quarter in front of you. Have the birds in a bird bag, take him for a walk, slip a bird out of the bag so the pup doest see It. As the pup quarters in front of you throw a bird low and just in front of the pup. (You do not want the pup to catch the bird but you want to surprise the pup.) He going to want to chase, you just hold onto the check cord and stop him "say nothing" (do not use the whoa command.)

He will give up the chase soon enough, when he stops and watches the bird fly off praise him softly!!!

This does two things for you!

He will stop if he bumps a bird in the field so you know it was a accident

He will almost be broke to wing and shot from the start.


Get a couple bird release pen and a well broke dog. Set the pens up around a turn (UP wind Of the turn.) Let the broke dog go on point. Put the pup on a check cord.

What you want to happen is for the pup to get scent of the birds at the same time the pup See's the dog on point.

He should go on point, quietly praise him and let him hold. If he tries to break say whoa shake him up and put him back (the correction is for breaking whoa). Once he is holding point release the first bird, let if fly off. Make sure your broke dog stays on point. Release second, then third bird, if he holds point for the second ,shoot the third let the pup have the retrieve. You will need two helpers, one to restrain the older dog ,he can not break. One to work the release traps and shoot the last flier..

A couple of sessions and pup will be broke to wing and shot and will back.

JD

At nine months, let the pup chase birds! Chase, chase, chase! Chase some more!

It'll increase his prey drive, increase his enjoyment in the field, increase his boldness.

Dogs know work from play (well, the good ones, anyway). When it's time to work, demand compliance. When it's time to play, let him play.

My dogs chase birds all day long on the farm, but when I have a gun in my hand, they are all business. No chasing, no goofing off.

Besides, 9 months is too early to do (serious) bird work, in my experience. HTH, Dutch.

I am new to dogs & gun dogs in particular. My first dog is a 2 yr old female lab Chicka given to us because the pup we bought died within 10 days - got hit by a car on the road while I was away. We have now meshed the gate so no pup can sneak out.

Now Chicka had a litter & 2 of the black males went to hunting homes & are both doing well at 8 months on opening day of duck season in New Zealand.

Zed is the yellow male we kept and he is not fully trained. He obeys basic commands like sit, stay & lie down etc. He can be persuaded to wait for his food. He will fetch a ball but will not give to hand. He chase the chicken in the yard & even caught one. I saved it once but a week later he caught it again and harassed / plucked it so badly that I had to put it down. The remaining 3 roosters are a bit smarter now & he just chases them. He still steals food from the bench top - yesterday he pulled down a tray of eggs!!

I bought one the famous videos on training "water dog". I wonder what I should do next.

He has great pedigree with lots of hunters in his lines. Some of his aunts are even find deer in the thick bush here in NZ.

Any suggestions on what I should do next? I would appreciate any help.

Sounds like your getting some good advice. I would be worried if a pup wasn't chasing birds. I totally encourage my springers to chase. they quit after they realized that they couldn't catch them. They still try to catch birds when they flush but they don't run after them.

Hell,,,when mine was a pup he would take out after crows flying over and he was gone. Had to run back and get my truck to chase him down. Try "whoa" ! Chaseing aint good if they get lost doing it

Broke a DD by taking him to South Dakota...to an area FILTHY with pheasant...and let him point and bust for two hours...ran the birds into the next county, would come back with his tongue on the ground...he kept doing it for 2 hours...then he finally pointed a bird and held and I was able to walk up to him and kill the bird...from then on the lights started to go on....you guys in the midwest are blessed to have wild birds!!! nothing better to train a dog.

quote:

Originally posted by Dutch:
At nine months, let the pup chase birds! Chase, chase, chase! Chase some more!

It'll increase his prey drive, increase his enjoyment in the field, increase his boldness.

Dogs know work from play (well, the good ones, anyway). When it's time to work, demand compliance. When it's time to play, let him play.

My dogs chase birds all day long on the farm, but when I have a gun in my hand, they are all business. No chasing, no goofing off.

Besides, 9 months is too early to do (serious) bird work, in my experience. HTH, Dutch.

What Dutch said. I just took in a 10 month old rescue gsp that never got out of his kennel until I took him in. He's been out runnng with my setter for the last week or two now. It's a hoot to watch his instincts finally starting to wake up. We have a fair number of flickers and doves feeding on the ground around here this time of year - he can't get enough of em the last day or two. Tried to climb a tree yesterday to get after one.

It's hard to build drive and birdiness into a dog that doesn't come with it, count your blessings!!

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
I am new to dogs & gun dogs in particular. My first dog is a 2 yr old female lab Chicka given to us because the pup we bought died within 10 days - got hit by a car on the road while I was away. We have now meshed the gate so no pup can sneak out.

Now Chicka had a litter & 2 of the black males went to hunting homes & are both doing well at 8 months on opening day of duck season in New Zealand.

Zed is the yellow male we kept and he is not fully trained. He obeys basic commands like sit, stay & lie down etc. He can be persuaded to wait for his food. He will fetch a ball but will not give to hand. He chase the chicken in the yard & even caught one. I saved it once but a week later he caught it again and harassed / plucked it so badly that I had to put it down. The remaining 3 roosters are a bit smarter now & he just chases them. He still steals food from the bench top - yesterday he pulled down a tray of eggs!!

I bought one the famous videos on training "water dog". I wonder what I should do next.

He has great pedigree with lots of hunters in his lines. Some of his aunts are even find deer in the thick bush here in NZ.

Any suggestions on what I should do next? I would appreciate any help.

I run pointers and don't know a thing about retrievers, but if it was me I'd find a local retriever club and spend some time there with your dog. Bet you'd find somebody that can help you. Don't get discouraged, it's a young dog.

Well it looks like you have the start of a very good GSP dog! Our pups chase birds almost everyday. We let them run with their parents in the compound 80 x 65 yard small field and also set out birds in a couple of cages. They see mom and pop go after the birds in the cage and they too want to take part after a short period. They also get hand on pointing instructions from the parents as well.

Some pups will take to wanting to eat the cage right off, trying their best to get tose birds inside, the desire is always a good thing to see in a young pup. Later on we take and use the electric release boxes and let them chase the birds all the way to the fence some 75 yards away, then call them back by name. We do this one pup at a time, while the others are on the chain gang. It really stimulates the young dogs and provides much needed natural exercise for them all.

Thanks for all of your input, he comes without papers but his parents are both solid hunting stock and from the comments here it looks like he has the natural drive to hunt.He absolutely loves water and is retrieveing well on land and in water already. I swim in the dam with him and he gets so excited he wimpers - only problem is i have to swim fast to keep away from him wanting to be right with me all the time.

For now i am going to give him time to chase and have fun and also time to be a bit more serious. Like a kid i think he needs to play a bit and as long as it wont affect him or his ability and obedience in the field in the long term a bit of fun is good for him.

look here at their demo DVD on this: http://www.willowcreekkennels.net/

quote:

Originally posted by Manyathelo:
Thanks for all of your input, he comes without papers but his parents are both solid hunting stock and from the comments here it looks like he has the natural drive to hunt.He absolutely loves water and is retrieveing well on land and in water already. I swim in the dam with him and he gets so excited he wimpers - only problem is i have to swim fast to keep away from him wanting to be right with me all the time.

For now i am going to give him time to chase and have fun and also time to be a bit more serious. Like a kid i think he needs to play a bit and as long as it wont affect him or his ability and obedience in the field in the long term a bit of fun is good for him.

The above quote is very true.
I usually start pups on a check cord, that way you are in charge. Holler WHOH when they have 47' of 50' and when they don't respond, turn them over, it's only once or twice and then when they hear WHOH they set it down like a reining horse.
It comes down to genetics, other than obedience traning there isn't much left for you to do.
Several years ago, I had a male GSP who had just turned 11 mos. when opening day rolled around.
My Brother and I went to Michigan's thumb area with this green broke GSP and not only did we kill our limit but the dog operated like he was beyond his age. That day we killed 4 roosters, 2 grouse, 3 or 4 quail over a dog that had just figured out how to piss on a hub cap.
I'm working with a 6 mo. old GSP and a few days ago I was looking out my kitchen window when I saw my pup on point, looking closer, I saw a Robin, which was what he was pointing. He was 40-50 yds. from the bird, he held the point for about 2 mins. then moved up(very slowly) 10-15 yds. and pointed again, this happened once more before the bird flew and he never gave chase.
I personally don't want my dogs flushing, busting, or chasing the birds. That's my job.
Close working is another thing that comes with the gene package. I live in grouse country and a wide running dog is useless here as well as most other places.
I went to an Irish Setter field trial back in the day and noticed several people on horseback, guess what, they were the judges, totally useless to the foot hunter.
Don't panic, he'll soon figure out what you are doing or what you want from him. Feathers in the mouth works wonders.


Stepchild

Stepchild

quote:

Originally posted by Manyathelo:
Thanks for all of your input, he comes without papers but his parents are both solid hunting stock and from the comments here it looks like he has the natural drive to hunt.He absolutely loves water and is retrieveing well on land and in water already. I swim in the dam with him and he gets so excited he wimpers - only problem is i have to swim fast to keep away from him wanting to be right with me all the time.

For now i am going to give him time to chase and have fun and also time to be a bit more serious. Like a kid i think he needs to play a bit and as long as it wont affect him or his ability and obedience in the field in the long term a bit of fun is good for him.

Be thankful that he wants to be with you, it's called male bonding.
I have a 6 mo.old GSP and I can't go anywhere without him under my feet, I love it. We are pretty much joined at the hip.

Stepchild