My 2020 1st year season for my first bird dog

[Michael54]

This is my very first bird dog, and her first hunting season. Daphne turned 1 on october 18th 6 days before the season opener here. Her training was a bit scatterbrained and all over the place as 1. This was my first bird dog and 2. Covid changed the budget a bit this year so sending her to a trainer wasn't an option. I wasn't expecting much out of her this year however she has more than blown away my expectations. Yes she will chase a running bird until it flushes. But she hasn't flushed a sitting bird she is on point on. She has retrieved every bird I have shot. She hunts non stop and has an insane amount of energy but in the house shes as calm as can be and my sons best friend. I have a feeling i will be talking about this dog and her first bird season for a very long time.
This is the first day of the season with her and my father in laws english setter. The dogs worked their asses off all morning but the birds were not cooperating. There were a lot of wild flushes 50 to 60 yards in front of us. The area was crowded and the birds were on edge.

This is a day i would like to forget but unfortunately i cant . We actually stopped hunting due to me running out of shells....we got into birds everywhere but this is the only one I actually hit. Towards the end on one she held point to my subsequent flush and two missed shots. Then after me calling her off of the spot and telling her to find the bird she went back to the same spot and pointed again...the dog has a sense of humor let me tell ya. Sometimes i think if dogs held their owners as accountable as we do them there would be human rescues for piss poor shots.

The next two pictures are from her very first successful daily limit. The hunt only lasted 20 mins. 2 picture perfect point to flush and retrieves to hand. This was on her 4th trip out total and she was on a mission.


Our season here in pa runs to the end of February and to say I'm excited to see how the rest of the season plays out is an understatement.

 

[Coach529]

That is awesome. The more bird contact she has, the better she will get!!

 

[Michael54]

That is awesome. The more bird contact she has, the better she will get!!

The goal is to get her as much exposure as possible this year. I wanna try my hand on some wild chukkar out west in the next two years if at all possible.

 

[jmez]

Congrats!! Nice dog. Not much better than shooting birds over a pointer.

Some will disagree. If you get a good dog, teach them to come when they are called and whoa. That's about 90% of your training.

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[Coach529]

Congrats!! Nice dog. Not much better than shooting birds over a pointer.

Some will disagree. If you get a good dog, teach them to come when they are called and whoa. That's about 90% of your training.

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I agree. Basic obedience.

 

[Michael54]

Luckily i spent most of my time with her on whoa, recall, and walking on a leash. Its the birds and retrieving i slacked off on training wise. Shes getting better with them everytime out though.

 

[Michael54]

And another daily double for Daphne. We got into birds fairly quickly and made short work of a mid afternoon hunt. We would have been done sooner but i decided that i wasn't shooting unless it was a held point pinned bird.

 

[Michael54]

Today was her best day yet. Me and my father in law both got our limit and a buddy got 1. 3 perfect point to flush retrieves to hand. And one hit bird track/retrieve.

 

[SkinnyPete]

That’s awesome!!! Keep it up!


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[208meateater]

We would have been done sooner but i decided that i wasn't shooting unless it was a held point pinned bird.

I was told when training a bird dog to not shoot a flushed bird. Only ones that the dog had sniffed out and held point on. That way it knows what it’s job is when out in the field working and not get lazy. Looks like she’s doing a great job and she’s perrty too.

 

[Michael54]

I was told when training a bird dog to not shoot a flushed bird. Only ones that the dog had sniffed out and held point on. That way it knows what it’s job is when out in the field working and not get lazy. Looks like she’s doing a great job and she’s perrty too.

Ill shoot wild flushes or if the bird is running and flies usually. I won't shoot if she breaks point on a bird

 

[208meateater]

I’ll shoot a wild flush if the bird is in a different direction than the dog is working and I’m trying to limit out. Otherwise I’ll let it go. If you come out west I can put you on a couple good chukar areas to check out. Bird hunting helps me a lot in filling the gaps between big game hunting seasons and I enjoy it.

 

[Michael54]

I'm hoping she's ready for something like that by next year. This year i'm trying to hunt her as much as possible. I've been getting her out 3 to 5 days a week.

 

[Michael54]

Daphne got it done in the snow. It was my first chance of the year for a double but i held off on the second shot due to the bird dropping low. She continues to impress me with her drive. She's a hunting machine but its a whole different level of intensity once she gets her first wiff of a bird. Tough going it was in the high 20's to low 30's with a combination of rain/snow/wind. As you can see there is a good bit of snow on the ground here as well.

 

[Squincher]

Chasing running birds she has scented is a problem. Experienced pointing dogs will relocate, but no pointer should break completely. She may overcome that with age, or she might start chasing and flushing everything. I'd work her on planted birds with a rope if you can and make her hold. You work the dog and have someone else shoot the birds for her.

 

[Michael54]

Took Daphne on her first preserve hunt. She did awesome today.

 

[actionshooter]

That is awesome!

 

[Michael54]

That is awesome!

The goal this year was to have at least 25 birds shot over her this season. She is well on her way to doubling that number and i have 2 more months of the season left. After the season it will be force fetch training and getting her ready for navhda UT testing. Covid messed up her NA testing and she will be too old in the spring

 

[Deerfanatic31]

Awesome work! Congrats!