Opening day, AZ dove hunting with our 9yr old Field Golden.

We have another 12 days to wait, but I hope some of you get out today.

Happy opening day to all who celebrate the best time of year!

Robbins butte in AZ was full of birds again this year. Done by 6am.

Hi there, I’m new to bird hunting and have a 12 week old Brittany. I’m looking for some drills I could work with her on. I’m also looking for any free online courses to find week by week drills. Anything from recall, to woah, and everything between.. i’m currently a stay at home mom so I’m home every day with the pup. Her recall is already really good for being so young. I’ve tried utilizing YouTube videos, but I haven’t found much of anything I’m looking for without paying.
Any helpful tips and pointers would be amazing.

This is my boy. I got him about a year and a half ago and am his fourth home. I think he just didn’t get enough exercise… that is not an issue when you’re a dog hanging out with me. He got to hunt with my then 16yo shorthaired pointer (I put her down in March, just before her 17th birthday) and picked up a few things we trained on. While he will point and we’re still working on holding it to shot, at the end of the day I think he’ll just bring them back for me which makes him happy and is fine with me. Anyway, here’s his first retrieve (last year he wasn’t sure what to do with them.).

Looking to add a female to our family next spring/summer. Anyone have a specific line/breeder in the states that they are impressed with? Specifically looking at breeders outside of the PNW, but not across the pond. Could definitely go Canadian as I know there are some strong hunting lines in Quebec.

Looking for the hardest coat possible, high drive, and hoping on the low end of breed standard for size.

I have a 5 year old Draht who is an amazing dog and my first bird dog. He’s great in every aspect from
in the field to home life, social life and being off leash. However, one side has been a huge challenge. I have never crated dogs when leaving them until him. I was hoping by now he’d be over some of the separation anxiety but it seems to have gotten worse. When it’s time for me and my wife to leave, he hides under a desk and makes himself as small as possible. I have to crawl under with him and get him out; I’ll either carry him upstairs to his crate or walk with him. He knows the kennel command well in many scenarios, and even in this one once he realizes he has no other option. If we leave him out we need to “dog proof” and leave nothing on counters he would eat or hurt himself with. He’s about 50/50 that we’ll come back and find everything in tact and pee or not on the floor. He’s not done anything terrible since he was a pup and we left him out, I wouldn’t say he’s destructive. When he was younger he was much more eager to go to the crate. And he still is; it’s still a safe place for him, he sleeps most nights in there with the door open and he’ll often retreat to it when he wants some alone time. Crating him certainly puts time limits on me and my wife’s time out and we always need to accommodate having him more than we probably should. So I’m certain there is some enabling involved.

Has anyone else experienced this? Do we just bite the bullet, deal with some pee to get him over this hump? He’s always rewarded with a treat when everything is good when we get home, but not when he has an accident. Not sure if he would even understand the difference, but I tend to think many dogs are even smarter than we give credit for.

Looking for advice on how to conduct a proper bird introduction with wild birds for my 8 month old and 1.5 year old Vizslas. I have daily access to wild birds, but most bird introduction advice I read involves using pigeons or pen raised birds. The birds in my area flush extremely easily so they are typically running 25+ yards out in front of us, or they hold in incredibly thick cover inaccessible to a person on foot, but sometimes accessible for a willing dog.

For some context, these are my 2nd and 3rd vizslas. I am an avid hunter but the majority of my upland experience is just hunting farm raised birds with a family member’s dogs. I did no formal training with my first Vizsla but did let him tag along with my family member’s GSPs on several occasions and he picked up on things quickly enough for it to be a great hunting experience for me and him (I’m aware that’s not the “right” way to train a dog).

I did hunt last season with my 1.5 year old, but I think a lack of a proper bird intro hurt him. He’s used to his daily access to birds, and because the birds tend to run so much, his tendency is to chase rather than point. We’ve worked on some whoa training but mostly worked on gun familiarization. He became extremely familiar with the starter pistol we used, and even got excited when it went off because he knew birds were around, but struggled as soon as the shotguns came out.

I want to avoid similar issues with my new puppy going into this season. I fully expect this season to be spent training them both and not actually hunting. But looking for advice on ways to properly introduce them to the wild birds. Fortunately my younger puppy is much more patient and will point everything she thinks could possibly be a bird.

Apparently EMT spray is no longer on the market. The company that produced it is out of business and has been for a while.

Does anyone know of a similar product that’s available?

I lost my 2 1/2 year-old Holland to cancer in July. Gibbs came home shortly after. Today we picked up Holland’s last mallard at the taxidermist. Here’s Gibbs checking it out.

My 2.5 year old setter is showing some new found caution when working pigeons. I’m all for it. Can’t hardly wait to chase some grouse

Hey everyone, so I am looking to get 1 or 2 barn cats for my property and I have a 3 year old GSP who has loves to chase rabbits. We held a kitten up to him a year ago and he did a little playful poke. Was just curious what people think and advice on how to accustom them to each other. Thank you!

OK I'm gonna bite the bullet and buy my first bird launcher. I'm planning on getting a dogtra. Is there any downside to getting the larger pheasant sized launcher? Will it work OK with pigeons/small birds while still giving me the option of sticking a bigger bird?

Hi folks. I recently acquired a 5ish year old munsterlander. I think he has been hunted a fair bit in the past. His obedience is pretty good, but when I've had him out running he seems far more inclined to bust through birds vs point. I just got my hands on a few (trapped feral) pigeons, but I'm at a bit of a loss about the proper way to use them, and what behaviors I'm actually reinforcing. I have trained labs in the past but this is my first experience with a pointing dog, so I don't really know what I'm doing. I don't have a launcher but have been woahing him with a bird in a tip up box. I obviously want him to automatically stop when he smells birds, but I'm not sure how to get there. Is there a good way to do this without a launcher?

1. What actions are viewed by the dog as a reward or correction? Is launching the bird when he hits sent going to be interpreted as his reward if he enjoys flushing birds?
2. If I get him to where he will automatically stop and point, how do I reward him for the correct sequence? Is shooting the bird so he can retrieve it the only real reward in this?
3. With a limited number of feral pigeons that won't go home, are there downsides to using tethered birds? I.e., if I release a tethered bird that instantly goes down, will the dog interpret that the same way as a bird released and flying off.
4. What is the best starting point to get him to make the connection between *bird smell*=*stop moving*?

Hopefully these questions make a little bit of sense. With my limited supply, I'm not super keen on the idea of just flinging off a ton of birds hoping he'll eventually catch the idea that he's supposed to point. I plan on getting him out quite a bit this fall. I understand the idea of only shooting pointed birds, but not sure how I'll even make it that far if he's only blasting through birds 200 yards away and never even tries to point.

Many thanks in advance for any tips anyone can offer!

Hi everyone,

I’m working on an open-source project called RescueLink. The goal is to help connect lost-dog reports with found-dog reports by identifying potential matches.

The project is still under development, and I would really value input from people who have experience with rescue dogs, shelters, fostering, or reuniting lost dogs with their families.

At the moment, the matching system considers:

• Breed
• Sex
• Primary and secondary colors
• Distance between the lost and found locations
• Dates when the dog was lost or found

For example, if a female Golden Retriever is reported missing and a similar-looking female dog is found nearby a few days later, the system can suggest a potential match.

However, I don’t think these details alone are always enough.

What other information would be most useful when trying to determine whether two dog reports describe the same animal?

Some ideas I’m considering:

• Approximate age
• Size or weight range
• Coat length and pattern
• Scars, spots, or other distinctive markings
• Ear and tail shape
• Collar, harness, clothing, or accessories
• Microchip status
• Medical conditions
• Behavior around people or other animals
• Photo similarity
• Direction in which the dog was last seen
• Different search distances depending on the dog’s size, age, or behavior

I would especially appreciate your thoughts on these questions:

1. Which physical details are most useful for identifying a lost dog?
2. What information do people commonly forget to include in lost or found dog posts?
3. Which characteristics help distinguish dogs that otherwise look very similar?
4. Would photo-based similarity checking be genuinely useful?
5. Should exact locations be hidden to protect the dog and the people involved?
6. How could fake ownership claims or misleading reports be reduced?
7. What feature would you personally want in a lost-and-found dog platform?

I want the reporting process to remain quick and simple, so I also don’t want to ask users for too much information.

This is not a fundraising post, and the platform is not finished yet. I’m trying to learn from people with real rescue experience before deciding which features should be prioritized.

Thank you for any advice or experiences you’re willing to share.

My 1.5yr Pudelpointer is house trained in that he’s quiet, behaves well around us, and etc inside but the one thing we haven’t gotten past is his desire to eat any cloth or furry items.

If given the ability to roam unsupervised he will find any sock, pillow, hand towel, or etc to eat & swallow as quickly as he can. We’ve been unable to give him any form of pillow or blanket in his crate as he will eat them. If I see him doing it I can get him to stop by just telling him “leave it” the problem is he seeks these things out when he has a chance.

He stays inside mostly but the only way is through 100% supervision which usually means tying off a 10-15ft lead in the room somewhere so he can roam the room but stay within sight.

Has anyone else dealt with something like this and how to break it?

Hi all! New bird dog owner, new to training a dog on birds. Just got my Irish Red and White Setter and 5 Bobwhite quail. Homing pigeons will be here next week.

My question is how do I plant quail for him to train on without launching $7 per bird out of my quail launcher, never to be seen again?

With homing pigeons, I understand they just return to the roost, but I haven’t been able to find an answer for this with quail aside from a Johnny House. Are these pretty reliable for calling your quail back? I don’t mind buying more quail, but my local quail farm only has so many quail for sale. Once he’s out, he’s out until more grow out in a month or two.

5 month old WPG Arlo’s first bird. Some of you may have seen some of my other training questions/videos.

He pointed well. After the shot he just spazzed and ran about 50 yards past the dead bird in circles but overall he is doing great.