Feral Pigeons to train your pointing dog

Using Feral Pigeons for training as a tool can be very useful.

I like to use them for several purposes: …

…

1. If you need to shoot a bird over your pup, it is better to shoot a feral pigeon than one trained to come back over and over.
2. I have a drill where I tie a length of string to one leg and the other end to the launcher.  About 30 feet will do.  This can be used to work wing/shot dogs because the bird will land close by and tempt the dog making for great training.
3. I like to introduce pups, that are conditioned to the launcher, for their first bird.  Many times pup will not see the bird flush from the launcher the first time but the string will cause the bird to land nearby thus offering pup another chance to see the bird that flushed.  Usually from that point forward you can count on pup seeing the bird flush!  This is very useful.  I’ve seen pups get into wild birds and never see the flush because their eyes and nose are still looking in the direction of the scent instead of up when they flush.
4. I also use them in kick cages rather than use my trained pigeons.

There are other uses as well but pigeons make good ‘intro’ birds.  Using quail for these drills can be quite expensive.  Once your pup is doing well on pigeons, you can then move to quail to reinforce training.

That’s about it today.

Happy Holiday Hunting!  Take your friends and family hunting this holiday season and build warm memories for the future!

Dave