Help with retrieving shot pigeons

[Gooner 143]

I have a two year old Springer that i have been taking beating to which he does well, he has pegged the odd bird and i have told him off for this.

Any way i can take him out training on cold pigeons without any problem, he will hunt and find and return to hand. The problem is with fresh birds.

On the last two weekends i have taken him shooting and when i send him for the retrieve he picks the bird and then drops it and will not bring it back. Even with lots of praise.

I even left a bird for two hours to cool down but he did the same thing any ideas please?

Edited February 11, 2009 by Gooner

[EssexMoles 0]

Do you have a command you give when he picks something up? I use a command every time my cockers pick something up or I give them something. When he's not sure what he should be doing you can use the command and re-assure him. Once he has learnt this on things he's happy with try it on fresh shot birds.

 

Try not to give him too many retrieves early on though, 2 or 3 out of 5, you get the rest, will keep him keen and help keep them steady.

 

Work on his drop to flush, he's less likely to peg'em then.

 

Try and see if it helps but don't rush him

 

Good luck

[Gooner 143]

tHANKS Essex Mole, i do have a command for him to pick up things, but beven this does not seem to work.

Today i went out with a dead bird that and had him carrying around the field,no problem.

I think i will just have to persevere

[tom1cameron 1]

This is surely a pigeon feather issue, and if you left the birds to cool he will have still remembered how annoying it was to get all those feathers in his mouth.

 

As you say, with my dog it just took him a bit of getting used to. A few wasted pigeons later and he got the hang of it!

 

The idea might be to get him off fresh kills and working with dummys with pigeon skin and feathers on them with a few loose feathers that can come off. Once he gets used to the loose feathers you can start to put him on cold birds but with loose feathers stuffed under the wings and so on until he is happier with those pigeon feathers.

 

Whatever you do do not chastise him for not picking up the pigeons. Just ask him to come back and give him praise.

[willow1 0]

they dont like the feathers much, stick a pigeon in an old stocking and give him a retrieve, do it a couple of times placing the bird in the same spot and then if succesful take the pigeon out of the stocking, and give him the retrieve as soon as he picks the bird up give him loads of encouragement to come back to you....

then leave it for that day

hopefully it wont be long before the dog picks up the fresh bird immed

 

keep us updated

[Guest ESS]

Good advise Willow and Tom it is a feather issue

[Blakloks 5]

I got told never to start learning your dog with pigeon because the feathers come off to easy you might have to keep him away from the pigeon to get him keen at retrieving game again i know the shooting season has finished but a teal is a good size bird to get them retrieving with

[turbo33 0]

imo its a feather issue. Go for the stocking idea with a slit in it and leave a wing hanging out. They very soon work out that a wing retrieve is less unpleasant and also lessons the isue of them developing a hard mouth.

Hope this helps.