07.26.08

Commands

Posted in Dog Training at 3:07 pm by birddog

Don’t use your dog’s name and then give him/her a command. i.e. Spot Come, Spot Here, Spot Whoa etc. The command should be simply the command, Come, Whoa, Here, etc. Some dog’s can become confused if you use their name prior to the command each time. They can start shutting down, every time they hear their name. Because, their name becomes part of a command and they get very confused. Everyone has this tendency, especially when you asking them to come. Spot come, spot here, is very common, and is marginally ok. However, Spot Whoa, Spot Fetch, etc, is not ok at all.

07.19.08

Training with Pigeon Poles

Posted in Dog Training at 9:57 pm by birddog

In 1987 I was stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Training grounds are/were very limited and the few that were available didn’t offer an overabundance of training room and my sons were getting tired of chasing pigeons tied to water hoses. Then I started working with homing pigeons, but I found I needed to keep too many to make the training day meaningful, the neighbors didn’t necessarily find it beneficial either. Hence, the necessity of allowing the pigeon the freedom of unrestricted flight while retaining the services of the same pigeon for the next dog led me to my “Pigeon Pole” concept.

When working with pigeons I have found it may take several training sessions for some dogs to start pointing them. I have also found that some dogs just won’t point pigeons at all. I still work the dogs that don’t point pigeons on them using my sequential training method. These dogs still benefit from the repeated training sessions and they quickly learn what I’m asking them to do allowing me to graduate them to quail.

If you have limited funds or limited space pigeon poles is the way to go. This method doesn’t harm the pigeons and allows me to reuse the same pigeons for several years. It is unbelievably easy to use pigeon poles. They can be used with or without bird launchers.