Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

2014 Dog assesments


setterguy

Recommended Posts

Thought this might be a helpful and interesting topic...

Let's hear about your assessments on your dogs performance this season.

Where you expectations met? Did your dog do anything better or worse than expected? Any training tips that you found successful this past season that you saw results in? What two or three things are you going to work on for next year and what is your plan to accomplish those goals?

Maybe we can help each other out a bit with some ideas that have worked for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quite a bit of season left.

Ruffed Grouse: Season went well and dogs did fine. My older dog did well and my younger dog ran good most days. There was one streak though where her owner missed every bird she (younger dog) pointed three days straight and killed every bird shot at over the older dog. blush Had some really good points this fall (both dogs) with the bird pinned between the dog and I. My son could have probably picked up one bird pointed ... which he subsequently missed when shooting.

Pheasant hunting has been really fun. My older dog was hurt and missed a couple weeks. The younger dog was absolutely fabulous during that time. She showed great patience on running roosters. Holding point until I passed her and then going again. This is nothing that I specifically taught her. She then moved on the birds and would either pin them by getting in front of them or pin them against cover type changes. She also followed a wounded running bird for over 150 yards (there about). She ended up pointing the wounded rooster with the distance traveled being so far ... when it flushed it dropped back to the ground and she caught it.

Older dog has come back well with good points and good finds.

Hope to pheasant hunt quite a few more times before season end.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mixed review. Grouse my older dog was pretty much useless I would only use her to spell my younger setter. My younger setter on grouse was great not great at retrieving but in terms of pointing and holding the grouse was great! So one question would be how do I bring out his retrieving instinct? He's good at fetch and has a hi drive compared to my other setters but just not a great finder of winged birds!

Pheasants my older dog dig great but I ran her two hard hunted back to back eight hour days had to end the trip early but she was great pointing g holding and retrieving quail and roosters in southern Iowa. Younger male could not figure running pheasants out. He did point quail. Should I worry about him not figuring pheasant out if I hunt 90 percent ruffed grouse? I heard if you got a dog that can point grouse he can point anything? Overall I'm happy with both dogs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

JM0555555 - You could get your dog steady to wing and shot. That could help them track the bird while in flight and they might have a better chance at locating the bird when downed.

I've also heard guys have luck, teaching to "hunt dead"

Play games where you hide a toy and give this command, drag something around so they have to learn to pick up scent on the ground.

As far as the younger dog not figuring out running pheasants - what makes him able to find, point and hold grouse is what is holding him back from moving birds.

Grouse dogs should stop at the faintest hint of scent and hold. Grouse are skiddish and will not take the pressure that many pheasants will. You can teach him to relocate when patted on the head, or something similar.

I just had to put down my best grouse dog last winter. She pointed the first grouse she ever came across when she was 6 months old. When she was 9 months, I took her to SD to pheasant hunt. I let her out of the truck, she takes three steps into the cut corn and goes on point. Of course there was no bird there but she smelled something....I give her the release command and she takes two more steps and goes on point again. Her instinct was telling her "I smell a bird, when I smell a bird I stop."

I put her away for the rest of the trip. She was only going to learn bad habits, creeping etc. I'm 95% grouse myself so I would rather not wreck what I had then try to teach her something she just wasn't going to do. Eventually as she got older I trusted her to know the difference but I waited till she had 3-4 solid bump free seasons in her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank u will do! Hunt dead is something I have heard but not done. Setter guy do you train steady to wing and shot? I was worried about that as well when he pointed ten feet from the truck in Iowa! also where do you get your setters setter guy? I have berg bros setter I'm In lve with👌

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My current two are from Berg Bros.

As far as training to wing and shot, my last female did it naturally, she backed naturally and pointed and held the first grouse she ever came across at 6 months....really a very nice dog.

My older (3) dog I haven't. Yet. I'm working on him slowing down in the grouse woods first and he is a fantastic retriever so it really isn't an issue for me. My younger one ( 6 months ) I think I might. He's got all the makings of a fantastic grouse dog. Had him out recently and he works and handles like a 7 year old dog. At a nice distance, nice speed and handles well...but has not yet shown any interest in retrieving anything. We will see how it goes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will start getting my 2.5 yr old steady again for spring field trials. After a fall of wild bird hunting he has forgot that he needs to be released by name before retrieving. Hope we can miss most of the heavy snow this winter, as it makes for better bird planting cover.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Well my 4 year old chessie retrieved his share of ducks and was his usual steady self in the blind. He does get a little...ok a lot excited and whines like a mofo on the first retrieve of the day which annoys the $hi+ out of me, but I can't be upset that he has that kind of drive and desire to retrieve. He made several blind retrieves and found birds that I never would have gotten without him... I am still amazed how he will break ice and keep going all day long. Ok, done bragging now! laugh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.