Ashleygrove Gundogs

Hi,

Beau is now 4 and I have an issue. Out in the field she is good. She dives into thick bushes without any encouragement, but when she flushes a pheasant, she chases it. Whistling and calling has no effect. When she eventually comes back, I put her on the lead.

Avis, I know what you are going to say.....take her back to the car. When I am about 30 mins walk away from the car, this can be difficult.

On the positive side, I have managed to get her to pickup and retrieve a pheasant to hand. This has been a bit of a challenge, but I think we have cracked it. So perhaps I should try her at picking up on Saturday?

Thoughts appreciated.......

Dave

Avis will definatley cringe when she reads this dave  but my old cocker had exactly the same problem when she was younger (due to lack of training mainly)  but what i learned to do with her was wait till she came back and instead of putting her on a lead was send straight back into the same bush or area to see if there were any more pheasants lurking there with the command 'get back in here ' and over time she learned that actually to carry on hunting was more fun than the chase . . .I am sure Avis will tell you to take her back to the car but i thought it worth mentioning how i got over this.. .good luck.  

keeperbird at November 26, 2010 at 3:25 PM

Avis will definatley cringe when she reads this dave  but my old cocker had exactly the same problem when she was younger (due to lack of training mainly)  but what i learned to do with her was wait till she came back and instead of putting her on a lead was send straight back into the same bush or area to see if there were any more pheasants lurking there with the command 'get back in here ' and over time she learned that actually to carry on hunting was more fun than the chase . . .I am sure Avis will tell you to take her back to the car but i thought it worth mentioning how i got over this.. .good luck.  

well, I won't say take her back to the car but I will say do some stop whistle training. If the stop is properly taught you would have brakes no matter what. It is always a tough one to crack as the excitment of the flush is always likely to bring on a chase, however, if you teach stop to flush she should look to you for instruction as the bird goes. You can then call her back or sit her up. Teach this by hunting her in thick cover, get a pal to make a big noise and throw a dummy/bird up in the air. Hit the stop whistle. If she sits either go in and praise, keep her hunting or you go for the retrieve(your choice but mix it up). If she dosen't sit then your pal must pick the retrieve before she gets there and you must run out and enforce the sit exactley where she was when you blew the whistle. Once you can get some regular sits to flush you can allow her to have the odd retrieve.

In the mean time, while you are beating, only let her work really thick cover where you can intercept if she looks likely to chase. I have seen Janes solution in action and it worked for her dog. Give it a try by all means but logicaly why would a dog go back into cover once the bird is flushed? She should think you are missing the point! Also Jane is a Yorkshire Farmers daughter and I wouldn't argue with her!

Earlier in the season I was walking gun on one of our drives, which involved walking the edge of a wood then stopping at the far corner.

Ollie was with me and not on his lead, and when a Pigeon flew out of the wood I shot it and Ollie waited to be sent for the retrieve - pat on the back for me I thought!!

When we reached the corner I stopped with Ollie sat beside me.  A Pheasant was flushed and Ollie instantly took off following it's flightline and waiting for it to drop  (he clearly has a high opinion of my shooting ability), suffice to say it did not but he did come back mid chase to the whistle.

My fault really, I should have put him back on his lead when we stopped walking, you never stop learning:)  However hopefully he also learnt that not all Pheasants will drop from the sky and are for him to retrieve.