# Bird Mania



## kellygh (Oct 25, 2010)

My question is how do I (we) better channel Pumpkin's,13m, energy around birds-mentally & physically? Is it a maturity thing? I see pics on here of pups going on very successful hunts! Anyway, from the time the quail arrived, until bed, Pumpkin nearly split in 1/2! Y'all remember the 1st night with your pup in the crate? The howling, crying, & guttural sounds that could not end soon enough? Well, that was P all day today. Bird mania evidenced by the aforementioned, uncontrollable shaking, refusal of food, and most human direction. Pumpkin is a *powder keg*! P had about 45m of off-leash exercise before going out in the field, and she was unhinged! She missed a couple birds initially due to the strong & shifting winds; however, once quail were up & flying, P ran with reckless abandon. I had ZERO control of her! Pumpkin tore through fields, heavy brush, fences etc., & there is hardly any surface skin that is not scraped, cut, & bloodied! It's time, maybe, for Maurice Lindley (our trainer) to get us started with the e-collar? We haven't been able to see him much due to summer break & Pumpkin's very recent heat. Pumpkin would have run in front of a freight train today! I/we might as well been a Blue Jay tweeting in the wind--IRRELEVANT! I know it's the 1st birds of the season, but.....Sigh..... Maybe I am the one who needs to channel my patience instead of P doing anything?


----------



## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

Kellygr,

Pumpkin has the desire and drive. Not all Vizslas are created equally. Some are like high-powered sports cars and some are like farm tractors. It is easier to handle a farm tractor, but so much more fun when you can learn to control a high-powered sports car.

The down side is you can wreck a high-powered hunting dog until you learn how to handle Pumpkin. Training is more about you learning then your dog IMHO. You have read a lot of posts about Vizslas being "soft." I think it is that they are highly intellegent. They will be a team member if they want to. Now is the time to start bringing you into the team.

At 13 months you and your trainer could start some control with a training collar if Maurice feels it is time.

Have fun.

http://redbirddog.blogspot.com/2010/12/green-broke-dog-with-green-handler.html

RBD


----------



## kellygh (Oct 25, 2010)

Thanks, Rod! I have known, and reminded anew, that I (we) are the weak link with Pumpkin :-\


----------



## Crazy Kian (Aug 10, 2009)

Kelly, trying to respond to your pm but you have me blocked for some reason and it won't let me reply. 
Sorry, if you can fix it I will send you a response.


----------



## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

> I have known, and reminded anew, that I (we) are the weak link with Pumpkin


Don't worry Kellygr, I am the weak link in our team also.
Pros that field trial as part of their livelyhood have told me that they and almost all sporting dog amateurs mess up their first or second dog. To think like a dog takes many years.

We amateurs make mistakes. That is why in field trials they have an amateur championship and a open championship. We make mistakes training these great dogs. We just have to learn not to make the BIG mistakes.

Best of luck.

RBD


----------



## kellygh (Oct 25, 2010)

Sorry, Crazy Kian. I just changed from "moderators only" to all members. I don't remember doing any settings for pm, but it should be fixed.


----------



## Crazy Kian (Aug 10, 2009)

Okay, now I just have to remember what I said


----------



## Linescreamer (Sep 28, 2010)

Lucky you. You have a great bird dog in the making!  Now you need to put the time in to train her to hunt. Yes, she is still young. A seasoned dog will walk right by a crate full of birds. They know they can't get them, and more importantly know they are not allowed without being commanded. The road is long, hard and enjoyable.  The choice is yours. For now keep her on the cord or get a collar. I have heard many stories of Vs getting hit by a car/truck chasing a bird.


----------



## dghubbard06 (Nov 4, 2010)

Kelly,

Stella is now 16 months and this is my first fall out with her. She is my first hunting dog. She has taught me a lot more than I have taught her.

Last fall we worked with our breeder on some grouse and it was very relaxed in terms of the structure. We just waned to make sure she was interested in birds and let her instincts take over. Then we introduced her to the gun and she did fine. 

When she was about 9 months I took her to a game farm and put her on some live pheasants. It was February of this year and considering the weather conditions she did quite well. I bought a training collar and it arrived about a week before we sent to the game farm, but I decided not to work with her on it before her first time out. I just felt that it might lend some confusion to the whole process if I hadn't gotten a chance to work with her on it before using it int he field. At the game farm that day she did a great job of finding birds, but I've never seen her so out of control. She went where she wanted there was little I could do about it. She actually found more than the springer and lab we were with. The problem was that the birds were not holding, they were running and obviously Stella couldn't help but chase and get too far ahead of us. The other thing is that she would not retrieve the birds. She had no interest in picking up a half dead pheasant that was almost as big as she was at the time. I came away from that experience thinking a few things: 1. I need to be able to better control her 2. She has all the basic instincts I could ever ask for and 3. I needed to work on the retrieve with her.

Throughout the rest of the spring and into the summer we have been working on these things. I introduced the electronic collar to her and she did really well with that. Her attention to me when wearing the collar when there are many distractions has improved tremendously. In fact, our city yard is not fenced in and when we are in the backyard she is off the leash with her collar on just in case she wanders to far off onto the side of the house. I also introduced the commands 'right' and 'left' with hand signals to help me direct her to a spot in the field. When we were walking off the leash into the woods and she was ahead of me. I would get her attention point to the left and say the command. She always wants to walk by me so she picked up the directional stuff pretty well.

As for the retrieve, we are still working on this, but I haven't done enough to expect a change yet. I just got a dokken dummy and also have a canvas dummy with pheasant wings attached. I'll work on her retrieve with these as she retrieves balls and frisbees on the command 'fetch' regularly. I think it may be a size thing, Stella is on the smaller side (40 lbs) and just needs to get used to retrieving larger objects. Even if she never does retrieve, she leads me to the dead birds so it is OK.

This leads me to today... well last weekend rather. We went back to the game farm as the pheasant season does not open for another week here. There were 10 hunters and 4 dogs hunting over a huge field in very thick cover, low wind blocked by trees and 75 degree temperatures. The difference was substantial. She still started out a little wild and skipped over a bird or two, but then really got into a grove. By the end of the day Stella had found more birds than the other dogs. Stella would redirect on my command, locked up on point several times and held strong until I could catch up to her. It was a lot of fun. She did flush a bird by running up too close on it, but that was to be expected. We ended up bagging 29/30 birds which we were happy with.

I will say that is hard for Stella to turn it off. After the morning session we were back at the field head grilling some lunch and letting the dogs rest and Stella was hunting in the woods. I had to put her in her kennel so she would be ok for the afternoon hunt. She never whines in her kennel, but after about 15 minutes she wanted out. I made her stay in until we were ready to head back out again in the afternoon.

Loooonnngggg story short, in my amateur opinion it sounds like you have a great dog and some of the subtleties will come over time as you work with her. Nothing you wrote in your message makes me think that something is out of the ordinary.

Best luck this fall,

Darrin


----------



## kellygh (Oct 25, 2010)

Darrin--Thanks a bunch for the reply! Stella sounds like a lot of fun and full of herself like Pumpkin  It's defintely nice to hear success stories from the "1st timers!" I don't have time to write right now, but I just wanted you to know I appreciate your post! Happy Hunting!


----------



## AfroViz (Jun 26, 2011)

If a hunting/trial prospect is what you were after then you should be delighted because Pumpkin sounds like an awesome little dog. She loves birds, had fun, didn't get seriously hurt; great success! Consider the lack of control as Pumpkin delivering an invitation to train her. She's ready to go ;D


----------

