Handling a Pointing Breed

[Sharon]

link originally posted by quackaddict2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfSTNwn5_Ac&feature=related

This video on the setter was so pathetic. If you want to see everything you shouldn't do, that was it. A well-trained setter, they probably bought. They hang it out to dry and have some big laughs while it's doing a beautiful job. Then they're too lazy to properly flush the bird . They even whistle the dog to do it. I couldn't believe it. The dog finally gives up and the bird flushes far and low from the gun. Pathetic. They don't deserve that dog. Yes, I'm a purist but....

[quackaddict2]

we all,or most of us,are well aware that the dog is doing a great job there

i didn't think that the handlers were very bright either

we are all just having some fun over on the other thread[never seen so much action in this section]

im sure there are millions of great clips of pointers and handlers showing it getting done[ive seen them]

i hope no one taking some of this chit to seriously

actually ive learned alot about pointers and hunt styles the last few days

[RyanGSP]

I agree that was pretty pathetic but I allow both my dog to flush on command. I have spent alot of time training this into them and I like them doing it as long as I say they can.

I hunt alot of cattails, sloughs, thick cover when I hunt pheasants and somtimes I can get 5 0r 10 feet from the dog but not closer. If I can see the dog is still hard onpoint I will give 1 of them the release to flush the bird. Usually the bird is right there and comes up in a good shooting spot but somtime he has run so I just keep both of them going.

[Sharon]

I wasn't criticizing your video post quack. I learned from it. I just wanted to use it to have a GOOD discussion.

Ryan:
I guess that's the difference iswhen you're trialing and hunting the same dogs. I always follow the trialing rules when I'm hunting so as not to confuse the dog and so as not to get any surprises in a trial situation. When I flush the bird myself, , I find the chances of missing are lessened plus my dogs are to hold until sent for the retrieve/ if sent at all. I often don't send them, so in a trial situation they don't always expect to go.

[Sharon]

sorry error

[RyanGSP]

I will be trialing my dog this spring as well. They know the difference between a bust and a release. My dogs are also taught to hold steady until the release. When the bird is flushed they stop to flush and are steady until I release them.

I work on 2 different commands for a flush and a relocation.

[Sharon]

Not many wild birds in Ontario.

Wild pheasant population is gone except for a few small patches in Essex county.In the 50's pheasant ruled in Southern Ontario. I went out with my dad every week.

Short woodcock season.
A decent grouse season in Central Ontario. ( maybe 3 +months?)
Lots of grouse in Northern Ontario but they don't flush.

That's it.

What are you finding in sloughs etc..

[RyanGSP]

I find alot of ducks in sloughs but I find alot of pheasant in there as well. They seems to like it a little wetter around here than the other upland birds. Almost all my pheasants are shot around water wethere it be on the edge of a lake, in the cattails around a pond, or the thick cover thats around a slough.

[Sharon]

Isn't that interesting, because that certainly isn't the case here. Here they survived in those miles of hedge rows that used to be between the farmers' fields. When the farmers figured out that every mile counted and got rid of the hedge rows that was the beginning of the end of the pheasants here. (Hide in the hedge rows from the predators and nip out a.m. and p.m. for a bite to eat in the crops.) Others would know more about this than me.

I know about Alberta foot hills but what is central Alberta like?
What upland birds do you have?

[RyanGSP]

I havent travel around the central of AB yet Cohod lives there and would be able to tell you more. I am more in the South Eastern corner and its flat here. A few lakes alot of dryland farming once you get south of highway 3. I find alot of huns out there in the wheat field and along the Cirrigana and hedge rows. We find alot of sharptails one you go east 20 miles they seem to like the sandy soil a little better but they are slowly making their way west.

Once you get into the foot hills you will find grouse and in the higher elevations of the mountains you will find ptarmigan. They say there is chukar in the south west corner as well but I have never seen one or gone looking.