Bird hunting and training this year in Texas

Well after another day afield running dogs on my quail lease I am pleased yet frustrated. The cover is so tall that it is difficult to really see the dogs work yet the bird population is good …so it is not hard to get dogs on to birds.

The broom weed covers up your feet, your dog, cactus, etc. Until we have a couple of really good hard freezes it will continue to be tough. On multiple occasions we would lose the dog and I would have to page it (a beeper that beeps only when you press the ‘page’ button as in my D.T. Systems SPT 2432) to find the dog!

Not witnessing your dogs behavior or actions in tall cover takes training / enforcement / praise out of equation. It would be a huge mistake to stimulate or scold a Brittany you can’t see due to tall cover so you have to err on the side of doing nothing which could be just as bad since the dog could be chasing birds that you don’t know about.

I never recommend trying to train a young dog in heavy cover. Now if you just want to take a pup and let them bust and chase birds until they figure out they have to point, sort of a ‘natural self training’ method, fine just as long we are speaking of wild birds.

Just remember this one tip of mine that I point out to everyone: Never shoot a bird not properly pointed. This means don’t shoot wild flushes, etc while pup is running / moving. That way you know you aren’t going to confuse your young prospect.

You should expect pup to hold long enough until you get close enough to make the shot, to do otherwise would encourage pup to bust birds so that you will shoot them. If that happens then your Brittany is no better than a flushing dog. (nothing against flushing dogs mind you.)

If training on pen raised quail do yourself a favor, hold the check cord in your hand so pup can’t jump in and catch it. That would set your training way back.

Happy hunting and don’t forget to take a child hunting!

Dave