Scott Linden Outdoors

So, maybe you’ve had the same problem. Often, we blame it on “planted” birds, and that much is true. But if your goal is a dog that stands a bird from a distance the moment it hits the scent cone, you can train it with “planted” birds.

There are at least two critical considerations: sight, and timing.

Timing: The advantage (usually) to wild birds is they will not hang around waiting for a young dog to slide in, relocate, nose around, get closer. They will flush. Hopefully, the dog learns from it. That’s the joy of wild birds, but if you don’t have them, what can you do? Don’t we all wish we could open the gate and find wild practice birds all year? That, or winning lottery numbers – I’ll take either one.

So save up your cans and bottles (or quit drinking so much!) Buy a remote launcher – or borrow your club’s launcher (you are a member of the local NSTRA/NAVHDA/NAHRA chapter, right?). A dog that cheats the scent cone just to watch a wild bobwhite fly off can learn the same thing with a pigeon: get too close and the bird goes away. No passing go, no collecting $200. And certainly no retrieve. The trainer needs to be ruthless, and willing to throw away a few birds. But simulating the uncompromising behavior of wild birds is possible, and the rewards are life-long.

Now, the other end of the equation: sight. If you didn’t buy a launcher and are simply hard-planting birds or using a harness, you’ve got another challenge. Birds won’t flush “wild,” so a dog can creep in when he hits scent, ultimately getting within inches of the restrained bird, if not actually picking it up.

Higgins Gun Dogs got me thinking about this. He uses the “Magic Brush Pile,” but as far as I can tell, in slightly different ways. It works, and more power to him. My brush pile’s “magic” is making the launcher or bird harness invisible. My dogs, trained without a launcher, quickly learned to hit the scent cone then search for the bird. When they saw it, they would point. Worse yet, sometimes they would simply go in and catch the bird.

Flick seldom sees a remote launcher, except on a shelf in the shop. They are now well hidden among the sage and bitterbrush so the only clue that there is a bird nearby is the scent. A well bred dog, brought into the scent cone from a 90-degree angle, will be startled into an immediate point. A tug on the check cord will help.

A strong breeze doesn’t hurt either. Enhancing your success with bottled scent does too. Put the bird/launcher out sooner, let that scent “marinate” and build up a goodly cloud in a wide downwind arc. Check-cord the novice into that scent cone and voila! Hit the launcher remote, and boom, you’ve got a “wild” bird scenario.