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WyoChukar
PostPosted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 6:15 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy

Good for him! Those dirty tweety birds have a pact with the quail you know; it's a conspiracy to shake our confidence and discredit the dog. Shameless little devils.

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Bobsthedog
PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 7:21 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 01 Mar 2018
Posts: 25

Dogs are just like people some have good noses some dont, some have good eyesight some dont some have poor hearing. Some are smart some are downright stupid. The training only teaches dicipline so they can be handled in the field. You can make sure a puppy learns to use his nose from the time you pick him up just by hidding treats, then moving to birds. The use of the nose is instinctive, just like hearing and eyesight. They use it becasue they have to. We dont understand thier noses or how scent travels becasue humans dont have the same sence of smell.

I have had enough different dogs to know that a good nose doesnt mean as much as prey drive. If you combine drive and nose if the dog is too smart or too stupid he might not make a dog either. My current Alpha male is a brute of a GSP, deep chest, graet nose, great drive, instintive retriever, will do 30 mile days 4 days in a row. He is also the best dead bird dog i have every had. But he is not the smartest dog i have ever had, and he has some issues relocating a covey after it has run out from under his point. His first season was quite disheatening, i didnt think he was going to turn out until the last weekend when i hunted him with my two 8 yearolds. His nose and stamina took over and he might as well have been the only dog on the ground.

My buddybought his brother two years younger. That dog doesnt have quite the stamina of my dog, certianly not the best nose of the two, had to be force broken to retrieve, and will only spend a few minutes hunting dead beofre he takes off and has to be brought back. He will not stay in front of us we basically flollow him. But he made a pretty good dog the first month of his first season. he is smart almost too smart. He hunts cover, and finds as many coveys as my dog even though he does nt cover as much ground, have the same nose etc. His brain makes upo for his differences.

My son bought a step brother, two years younger. Great nose but questionalbe drive, no retriver instict, and still plays and chases the other dogs. We still hunt him by himself. His nose is somewhere btween the two dogs i talk about above, but He will go get boarded this summenr and i will let someone else work him, I need to make sure its just an imature dog. The greeder says my dog and my busddies dog are the exceptions, that most of his males dont mature until thier third season.

My buddy that bought hte younger brother has a 17 year old GWSP that has never ahd a good nose, and has always had poor eyesight. Ths dog pretty much had to be right on top of a covey to smell it, but he made upo for it with stroing drive and a lot of stamina. He covered enough ground to make up for the fact that he couldn't smell.

Agian all that to say they are all differnt, their noses like our eysight are not created equal.
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Chicago
PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 8:18 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 12 Aug 2007
Posts: 1376
Location: Northern Illinois

Bobsthedog wrote:

Agian all that to say they are all differnt, their noses like our eysight are not created equal.


True, they all give you something different and our job is to learn how to work with what they give us.

Good Hunting,
Mike
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WyoChukar
PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 10:42 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy

So true. We call ourselves "Master", but in reality it is a partnership between man and dog that is forged by hours, days, months,years and miles.

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Riflemeister
PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:55 am  Reply with quote
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Joined: 27 Jun 2012
Posts: 1111

The talk of hunting dead and retrieving as a result of strong prey drive and good nose is the epitome of what makes my 8 year old GSP likely the best dog I'll ever own. I could recount myriad instances of bird recoveries that would probably been lost with a lesser dog, but I'll just tell of the latest one that happened this weekend on his first field trials following his recovery from TPLO surgery.

We ran an open trial on Saturday, and followed up with a buddy hunt on Sunday. For the buddy hunt, Bode was teamed with one of the high point standing GSP's that is a regular on the field trial circuit. At the end of the run, Bode had three finds to the other dog's one bird. The last find occurred just as time expired and we were allowed one minute to flush, shoot and retrieve the bird. I had two of the 4 allotted shells remaining after bagging the first two birds, but when I reached into the vest pocket for the shells all I found was one shell. The judge cautioned time was running out as I tried to find the other shell and I hurried in to flush with my mind more on what happened to my other shell than what I was doing. The bird flushed and I whiffed on the shot as the bird took off out of bounds into thick brush and trees looking like it wanted to land in a tree as it disappeared from sight. Bode launched in pursuit as the judge announced the one minute was up, so we scored the find, but not the retrieve. Bode was gone for about 5 minutes when I finally spotted a flash of white through the thick brush. As he got closer, I could see a little bobwhite rooster's head sticking out of his mouth. He had just retrieved an uninjured bobwhite out of some of the thickest tangle of down trees and brush imaginable. Some of his best retrieves have been done out of sight, where only your imagination can fill in the details, but I wouldn't be surprised if he'd had to snatch that bird out of a tree the way it looked when it went out of sight. I found my missing shell when I got back to the truck, I'd taken the empty and good shell and placed them in the empty shell pocket after unloading following that second bird. That dog deserves a better shooter, but he's forgiven me.

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