So I bought a batch of pigeons from the animal auction this morning, and as a treat I figured I would let gauge chase a couple of them.

I clipped the wings on two of them and headed to a county park not to far from me! When we got there, I took him to a tall grass area. I tossed the first one on the ground, and much to my suprise it took flight. Though it could only get about 4 feet off the ground. Gauge chased that bird for the better part of a mile, I thought he was gone for sure!

I whistled and called him! For about 10 minutes! Then all of the sudden I heard something rustling the grass as it got closer to me.

Once again, to my suprise! There was gauge with the pigeon in his mouth, just as proud as can be!

Josh

LOL...
so now what are you going to do when you shoot at a pheasant and it flies away???? Guage is gonna be running!


But really, that is very neat - shows some real perseverence on his part!

Juli

Juli,

I honestly didn't think it would get that High off the ground! And I surely didn't mean for it to get that far!!!! I was really thinkin he went to far this time!

But he knows his commands! And he accomplished his goal!

Josh

Sounds like you had some fun. That is the most important part. Clipping the wings won't help you a whole bunch, it is more for chickens...Here's a tried and true method....

Use rubber bands around their legs so, they can't walk. You don't want your mark hitting the ground and then walking to another location, this won't help your pups marking. Put another rubber band around the last 4-5 inches of the wings.(flight feathers) If, you have their legs and feet tied and they are still going a little farther than you wish, just pull out a big chunk of feathers from the wing without the bands.

Just my means....good luck--Paul

Paul,

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it! I have never heard of that method, but it sounds excellent! I am going to try that tomarrow morning! What an excellent way to practice marking in high grass!

Josh

Gauge another method is get one of your old socks and some blind tape then --

Put sock over head tie sock with blind tape. Throw bird they fly to ground and you got a nice wounded flyer that gives little trouble. Dogs love to retrieve wounded. Hood method. I never use pigeons. Pheasant or duck.

quote:

Originally posted by gauge:
Paul,

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it! I have never heard of that method, but it sounds excellent! I am going to try that tomarrow morning! What an excellent way to practice marking in high grass!

Josh

I am no expert or anything close to it but, I would avoid working on marks in high cover with a young pup. It will not reinforce marking. As soon as pup hits the high grass, his eye will turn off and his nose steers him along.

Marking drills should be done in medium to low cover so the dog is watching the background, terrain and timing his run to the mark. When the dog gets to the mark, he sees it and picks it up. In high cover, it is all nose.

That is just my two pennies....Paul

I completely see your point, and most of the work I do is in a cut field! But on occasion, I try and get him to use his nose!

I could be completely off base with that, but I am just trying to expose him to as much as possible!

Thanks,

Josh

I changed my Avatar to a picture of this exact pigeon!