Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Another pigeon shoot day for the Airedale

My son and I met a few friends on the pigeon fields and had another wonderful day. Scooch, my pup got in a ton of work and she killed it like always. She had 20+ retrieves and definitely earned her couch nap today! Scooby, the black lab is a KILLER. Highly trained dog and it shows.

Awesome man. Great training opportunity.

Where are you doing that?

This girl of mine has a ton of retrieves under her belt a lot of them are from these pigeon shoots! We do this on a farm near Casa Grande

Love those multi talented Airedales. I was raised by Airedales.
Nice dog(s).

Great work....some don't get that much in a year. Congrats!!!!

Definitely fun to have a dog that is multifaceted. Saturday we are going to a flushing class, and here soon I will do some more scent trailing work with her, as well as water work during the summer to brush up on duck retrieves, as well as get her exercise when its hotter than hell here in Arizona!

I am confident she will do absolutely great.
I had a male that could do it all, except point. You sometimes had to play his game.
Great family dogs as well.

Shes been to these classes quite a few times. She loves it, and sleeps like a baby afterwards! One of my favorite ways to spend a morning.

That sounds like a great time. Pigeons aren't as common around here as they once were. As such, they are more valuable trapped to use/sell for dog training. Numbers are such few are trapping pigeons so I am kind of the only one doing so locally. I get $7/each which is about the same price I pick up hen pheasants from a commercial pheasant farm that are washed out from breeding.

I encourage one to cross train with other disciplines when possible. The different perspectives broadens one's knowledge and helps with critical thinking when problems crop up.

I train with a couple retriever groups even though I run pointing dogs. It gives access to ideas, grounds, and equipment not generally available in pointing dog circles to help bring out the best in your dog's ability. Since starting this a few decades ago, my dogs have been far better retrievers than expected (better than the labs trained only from books that I started with) and happily retrieve from land or water. Double marks are pretty standard with triple marks a possibility with a couple dogs I owned. One can also work on blind retrieves which is very helpful in the field when hunting with others. As is running a line and using hand signals in place of voice or whistle commands.

I like to expose her to as much different training as possible. Today there were 5 or 6 dogs at the training... Every single one was a GSP.... Except for her. While it is clear she doesnt have the nose or endless energy of a pointer, she holds her own as a flushing dog and out retrieves almost all of them. I attribute that to pointers wanting to get to the hunt, while she is content on finishing the job. In the field she is a monster on dove and pigeon as she finds and retrieves them almost without flaw. Ducks and water retrieves she is hit or miss on, but she hasnt had the experience that she has with doves and pigeons.

That is a great pic! Airdale on a chain gang with GSPs! Great way to expose her to bird dog ways.

I hope that wasn't the "flushing class" you were talking about a couple posts earlier. If it was, and they are running GSPs, I can see where there might have been some issues with retrieving as well as in other areas. When I started in NAVHDA 40 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for a couple of labs to show up with a pointer of some sort. I did it with my last lab and later the two springers I've owned. Upland type training opportunities were far more limited and many were transitioning from pheasant/waterfowl to grouse/woodcock due to the dropping numbers of the former. I learned a lot from those owners and wish I would have known what I learned with my earlier labs.

I put my dogs on a chain gang when I train no matter the breed/purpose. I'll even toss the house dogs on the chain to keep them out of mischief in the house. I don't think the dogs learn from watching but I do believe having to watch gets them excited and ready to work when their turn comes. In other words they want to get out there and do their job and get praise for doing it correctly. I also use it as a training opportunity to teach the dog to remain calm and quiet while waiting its turn. It is very annoying to have a dog howl and bark incessantly when a different dog is taken out. Especially at a test or trial where the dog is close to you and others. Though when hunting one could think it as a benefit as one will always know where the truck is...

Finding/making as many training opportunities as possible can only help a dog. My best dogs have been those that were worked the most whether in planned or organized training sessions, tests/trials, hunting of various sorts, and even every day tasks such as walks.

This is the flushing class, however it isnt specifically a flushing class. It is an upland training class, pointing work and drills for the pointers, including honoring, stead to point, wing, shot etc. And then several different drills for my flusher. Normally we will do one round of find and flush with homers, and then a round of find, flush, kill, and retrieve. Then we all go up top and work on some obedience. Usually it is heal or whoa for the pointers, and whistle sits for my Airedale.

Also, she is just about the only one that doesn't make a sound on the chain gang. However, she doesn't usually make any noise anyways.

Thanks for the explaination, it clarifies matters quite a bit. It had me wondering if the guys running a dog training group I was involved with many years ago are now snow birding down there and started their "training" back up. They seemed to be more knowledgable towards gabbing than dog training.

The trainer we see is a retired law enforcement officer (same agency that I work for currently.) He is as busy if not more so now than he was during his main career.
He is a great dog trainer and bird guide. We have a great time there, learning and shooting the breeze. He mainly trains pointers, I think he enjoys having my flusher in the mix as well.

Couple of weeks ago, there was another trainer there observing, Kelly had some high praise for Scooch, my Airedale. As one can imagine, I was pretty proud of that.

Another day, this time at a dairy farm. We were right in there with the youngings. They didn't care but the dogs weren't the biggest fans of these over sized puppies.

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There can be some hot action in those dairy farms. One of my friends who winters here hits them hard. The times I've joined him I was surprised it didn't bother the cows a bit... even with dead birds bouncing off of and around them!

I was also surprised at how they liked to pick them up or kick them around.

Took her to another day of flushing training. No photos today, but yet again she was the only non- GSP on the chain gang.



She searched and flushed 4 bob whites today. The first one was set up a little odd, we had the wind to our backs as we worked it. She circled it, got the wind, flushed it perfectly, right over my head. She chased it down and brought it to hand. Not ideal for a pointer, but perfect for a flusher, amps her drive up big time.

On another one, the bird wasn't as "sleepy" as it should have been. The trainer and I saw it up and walking as we approached and we let her work it. She caught the scent and had her nose to the ground and flushed it. I didn't have a shot, but the trainer did and he made a wonderful shot. She was headed full tilt to the fence that she has had an encounter with before. Like an old pro, she ducked under the fence at full speed, recovered the quail and brought it to hand. Pretty good day for a dog that turns 2 in a few hours.

Need to train her whistle sit, but it has been so damn hot here in southern Arizona that by the time I get home from work, the temps are reaching triple digits. Unbearable for the dog and myself, especially after working all night.