Training dogs for pheasant

[Westernduck]

Hey guys,
Anyone know of any good trainers in Northern California for pheasant? Books or online coarse recommendations would be appreciated as well.

A little background, my dad is retired and wants to take up pheasant hunting again. He offered to buy a trained dog if I take care of it, but a third dog is out of the picture for me currently. I have a 5 year old lab that was a good duck dog, but I sold my boat 2 years ago and she’s been retired since then. She’s gun broke and will retrieve birds. I also have a 1 year old WPG with high drive, but she’s never been hunted. I’m currently getting her used to feathers and using her nose.

I’ve been working on the basics with both of them, but I’m lost when it comes to pointing and flushing.

 

[KurtR]

Can’t help with the pointing part . The flushing part is easy take them hunting and get exposed to birds. Just make sure they have good obedience and natural ability takes over.

 

[MOwhitetail]

I second what Kurt says. I’ve got a Chessie that’s hell on pheasants. I’ve spent a ton of time training him to retrieve ducks, but essentially no dedicated time retrieving pheasants. Only “training” thing I did was buy some pen raised roosters and set them in a small piece of CRP so his first “hunt” would be short, action packed, and most importantly successful. I just worked him downwind of the birds til he picked up the scent and went to investigate. The birds flushed, I shot, he got to retrieve. The next two hunts after that we just went somewhere that I knew we’d see some wild birds. After that he had it pretty much figured out.

 

[Dennis]

I don't know about California dog trainers, but I can offer some insight to training labs for pheasants. I see it as a two part journey. One part is the dog locating and finding birds and the second part is keeping your dog within gun range and retrieving. Pigeon's are a cheap substitute for pheasants and readily available in most areas. I use pigeons at a young age to teach the dogs to hunt and track down birds. Then teaching the dog to stay within gun range is key followed by being able to stop (sit) your dog if they start tracking a bird out of gun range. Teach them to sit to the whistle until you catch up and send them again until they flush within gun range. Training should be specific, short and fun to start and end.

My method is a combination of methods I like that suit both me and my dog's love of life. There are lots of books and intranet videos on dog training. Two I recommend is Tri-Tronics Retriever Training book available on Amazon etc. and the Bill Hillman approach to dog training and videos. Below is a picture of one of my young labs early in her career.

 

[jags]

Amazon.com

That's a book I used with my WPG and some youtube videos. That and took her hunting a lot and in her second season is really getting it all figured out. I don't do any trails or show things, just like to go hunt.

 

[chemist]

There are two very important things to train.

1) Obedience.
2) Slow introduction of gunfire.

After that, I would run your dogs several times on wild birds (but not during nesting season) be it pheasant, grouse, or quail. Your dogs will transfer the knowledge from one species to the next. For the WPG this will give an indication of its natural point, range, and what your starting point is.

If you by Northern California you mean downtown San Francisco then this could be difficult. If you are near public land where you live, there should be wild gamebirds around you even if they are not numerous.

There are things you can do to speed it along but there is no substitute for wild bird contacts.