I have hunted squirrels behind curs and coons behind walkers but never had an opportunity to hunt birds behind a bird dog. Always wanted to try it but never had the opportunity. Not knowing the first thing about it I've done as much research as possible and thankfully I have a very close friend who use to grouse hunt religiously. So I'm not going at this alone.

I had an unoccupied kennel and doghouse, little bit of fun money in the play account and a hankering to bird hunt so I bought a "started" English setter. How far along she is I won't know until I get her out. I only have to go on what the seller has told me. I hope this pooch turns out to be a good dog. Going to get her on some quail Saturday afternoon at a local preserve. Hope this is the first of many. I'm sure I have a long road ahead of me.

She may not be as pretty as some of the other dogs out there but I'll be willing to bet she's just as sweet.

Hi Lucy....Good girl....

make sure you break her into the sound of gunshot the right way.

In the sellers original ad it states somewhere "has had several birds shot over her" I have shot a few clays here at the house, she Doesent seem bothered by it all and actually comes out and watches and barks like mad....I'm thinking she is ok in that department .


But just to help me out...what would the correct way to introduce her or any dog for that matter to gunfire? I haven't had many dogs. 3 to be exact. 1 cur, 2 walkers. None of the 3 were ever gunshy so I'm not sure what would be the appropriate way?

Lucy is a doll.. She will be fine.. I usually shoot a gopher or prairie dog with a .22 for my pups and let them taste the blood.. After that no problem.. In Ky. I know those are not too plentiful!!
Maybe a pigeon, red squirrel something small she can nail and not get hurt.. You will have a pal for life, and a great hunter..

Let us see more of Lucy!!!

Welcome Lucy and there are some pretty nice Dogs hanging out here. Don't be a stranger.

She's a beautiful setter! You just stepped over the line into the realm of Class.

Setters come along slowly and get over the goofies at about 1 1/2 years. Use a soft hand with the lady.

She may be just fine with it. Maybe not. she may have already been exposed to gunfire just fine, but you don't want to take a chace of just blasting away around her till you work her into it.

http://www.sportdog.com/hunting-training-tips/go-slow-when-introducing-a-dog-to-gunfire

http://www.gundogsonline.com/video/hunting-dog-training/hunting-dogs-introduction-to-gunfire.htm

http://www.gundogsupply.com/honeybrake-episode20.html

She's gorgeous...

Looks like you chose well. Setters are sensitive, they don't need severe correction. If she's been shot over she's not gun shy.
On young pups l load up some 38 specials with just the primer. I shoot them around the dog while their eating. Hasbeen

Very nice, that "cuteness" factor is a cheap trick when they get into puppy trouble, but it works.

Luuuuccyyy, you've got some schhplainning to doooo.

They are sweet dogs.

Thanks for the kind words fellas.... I keep hearing use a soft hand, be gentle. And I just wonder. What does that mean exactly. Can someone give me a quick run down on how to correct her and when to do so?

Corrections, like everything else in dog training need good timing.Almost invariably they don't need to be as harsh as most folks think.
The BIG DEAL for me is when you correct the dog and she does whatever it is that you consider desirable she needs to be rewarded for it with praise.
Most folks take the good stuff a dog does for granted and are quick to admonish the bad stuff.
Bad stuff gets a correction, good stuff gets praise...no matter what it is...something as simple as a proper "heel" etc.
First thing I tell anybody is take the word "no" out of your vocabulary. Most folks use it on the dog so much that it means nothing. Dog starts to screw up a simple "huh" will get the dogs attention and you can redirect her to the proper behavior,praising her all the while. Lots of folks I know make a sound like a game show buzzer when the answer is wrong.
Put yourself in the dog's position and make what you want learned easy for the dog to learn.Most folks just use 'corrections' on undesirable behavior and skip the rest.It don't work that way....
Setters area nice 'biddable' dogs and easy to train.

Well, it just depends. You will come to know her better than any of us. If you think of a strong/knot head lab at one end of the spectrum, and a female setter at the other. It really doesn't take much discipline to get something corrected. I'll give you an example, I have a setter that I use a training collar on and I've never turned it pass like number one or 2. In fact,after a few taps on the button her first year or 2,I now just use is the tone on it to get the correction. No problem at all that's all it takes now. That being said,most setters will want to run big, I let them and don't try to keep 'em close much. Depending on cover and such, that may be 200-300 yards before I turn 'em back. I do run a GPS on them at all times in the field. With that, I can just look down and see where they are and just give 'em a tone and watch to see if they turn back. The GPS has really changed the way I hunt and made it 10 times more enjoyable and stress free. You'll find a ton of good advise over at gundogforum.com

Excellent post. I load primers into empty shotgun hulls for that conditioning. We start by standing off a moderate distance at feeding time and pop a few as the dogs eat. Then we take the shotgun with the same primers only and run the dogs, firing a lot.

They soon associate the popping with good and fun things.

Nice looking dog. She will teach you alot.

Nice looking girl you have there in Lucy, Ky221. Congrats and good luck with her.

Thanks to the rest of you folks that posted about the empty hulls/brass with a primer for gunfire training. I've had a number of dogs over the years, never a "gundog" but I look forward to that pleasure when I retire. Right now, our whippets might be good at running stuff down, but they are not "retrievers" by any stretch of the imagination.

I'll agree with the folks who mention using non-harsh methods of training. Perhaps especially agree with Ingwe regarding the praise approach. (Hint, he might just be a guy to listen to in this regard) Again, no gundog experience, but multiple dogs with various titles in obedience, rally, and agility have convinced us the old way of force training a dog has been left in the dust for us.

Our dogs are constantly being rewarded with praise from the time they wake up till the time they go to bed, for every little thing they do correctly. And "no" is mostly gone from the vocabulary (unless I forget).

"Leave it" is your friend, perhaps the best command we've learned over the years from the trainers we've been to. The dogs aren't being told they're bad, they don't get a strong correction, they just know that we're leaving that alone for now and moving on to something else.

I wish you and Lucy the best in all your future "events". May there be many enjoyable ones.

Geno

Have not been on in awhile sorry fellas


I'm no expert but I had her out yesterday, first time in the actual killing fields and out of the yard.

She is doing very well. She comes to whistle. She pointed 2 bobwhites and retrieved both to hand. Locked up like a vault and stayed put until
I got there....I don't exactly know what I'm doing but I'll tell you. She's a helluva lot smarter than me. She still has a long way to go I know but I'm tickled pink as of right now. We're gonna learn this together

Probably the worst picture I have ever taken but there are 2 quail laying there.



She was worn out as you can tell, fast asleep 10 minutes into the ride home Most well behaved dog inside a vehicle I have ever had.

Bet it was a good peaceful sleep, it's what they live for