Freighter has had a lot of experience retrieving ducks, but not as much experience hunting upland birds.  We were lucky earlier this season when Storm brought home a couple of grouse and a woodcock so we could work Freighter on them before hubby dressed them.

A hunt is just a walk in the woods unless the dog knows what it is looking for.

First we tossed the birds around a little and let him retrieve them.

Freighter With The Woodcock
Freighter’s  First Time With A Woodcock
Freighter's First Time With A Grouse
Freighter’s First Time With A Grouse
No Problem Picking It Up
No Problem Picking It Up

Then we threw them in some nearby cover so he would have to use his nose to find them.

Freighter Retrieving A Grouse In Our Yard
Freighter Retrieving A Grouse In Our Yard
Another Toss In The Cover And He Has The Bird Again
Another Toss In The Cover And He Has The Bird Again
One More Time For Good Measure
One More Time For Good Measure
Were You Looking For This?
Were You Looking For This?

The next time Freighter when out, he flushed 9 woodcock so putting him on some birds definitely helped.

We did something similar for Sunny during our hunt weekend before last.  Freighter has pheasant hunted before, but it was Sunny’s first time on pheasants.  As soon as we bagged the first bird, we let her work with it a bit.

Sunny's First Pheasant
Sunny’s First Pheasant
Good Girl Sunny
This Bird Is Big!
More Confident With The Bird
More Confident Holding The Bird

It wasn’t long after she was flushing and retrieving like she had been doing it for years.

Sunny With A Nice Retrieve
Sunny Retrieving A Hen
Sunny With A Nice Retrieve
Nice Job!

Don’t forget that in honor of Thanksgiving this Thursday, we will be doing a special Thanksgiving Edition of This ‘N That Thursday! My co host Ruckus the Eskie will be hosting a give-away so make sure you stop over and link up!

Join the Hop November 28th
Join the Hop November 28th

17 thoughts on “Young Dogs On Birds”

  1. Looks like the test runs paid of. Great haul. Have a terrific Tuesday.
    Best wishes Molly

  3. I guess we never thought that you would need to train them to find and grab the different kinds of birds. Looks like they pick it up pretty quickly, though.

  6. I love this line: “A hunt is just a walk in the woods unless the dog knows what it is looking for.”

    Great pics, and glad Freighter got in some practical experience. 🙂

  7. I cannot begin to tell you how cool this post is. I love learning about the training and seeing the lightbulb come on in their furry little brains.

  8. I never realized that dogs need to work with different birds in order to get their particular scent. I just thought a bird is a bird – this was so interesting! Looks like Sunny really checked that pheasant out and “got to know it” before she picked it up! Well done to both dogs.

  9. Hmmm, I always wondered if you would let them “play” with a new bird so they could get the scent, feel, etc of it. Interesting…and of course, job well done for all!
    *high paws*
    Oz

  11. I agree with Donna, I love that line. In fact, I love it so much I copied it and it inspired me to do another post. Of course, you will have to wait for it. But I do thank you.

    And it looks like the little extra training paid off!

  14. I’m currently trying to teach Donna to take it and hold stuff in her mouth…. unsuccessfully… hahaha… I shall persist!!

  15. Oh, that is so neat the way that you train them about those birds. And so cool that they really learned from it!

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