Showing posts with label Training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Training. Show all posts

Building a Grouse Dog Paperback

Building a Grouse Dog: From Puppy to Polished Performer by Craig Doherty, is the most comprehensive, how-to manual there is for taking an eight-week-old little squirmer of any pointing breed and turning him or her into that most coveted game bird finder there is: a finished grouse dog. 

Unlike many general pointing-dog training books, this one concentrates on one species the ruffed grouse. Grouse are notorious for their caginess, their wariness, and their difficulty in being pinned down so a hunter can get close enough to flush and shoot. It takes a dog that has been trained nearly from birth to handle that task, and no one knows how to do it better than Craig Doherty. 

Craig was the driving force behind Field Trial Magazine, is a columnist for The Pointing Dog Journal, regularly competes in grouse trials throughout the Northeast, professionally trains grouse dogs for clients from all over the country, and this is important guides grouse hunters using his own dogs trained in his outstanding methods; important because paying clients need results, and those results can only come by following dogs that know the game. 

A number of how-to training books tell you what to do from beginning to end; but if you have started your own training, run into problems, and consult the literature, many times you ll find that the advice is something along the lines of, Well, you messed up because you didn t do X, Y, and Z. Remember that so you won t ruin your next dog. Not Craig if you have run into a snag with your current dog, Craig tells you what to do to get past it and on with the dog s completed training. So if your aim, your goal, is to own and hunt behind a finished grouse dog that knows what s what in the coverts, Building a Grouse Dog is the best guide you ll ever have.

 

 

Pointing Dog Training on Grouse and Woodcock - Video


Bird Dogs Afield takes you into the field for spring pointing dog training on woodcock and grouse with German shorthaired pointers and an English setter.






Preseason Training Camp - Ruffed Grouse, Pheasant


I dropped my English Setter off at the trainer the other day.  When we got her three years ago she was a fully finished dog so this training is mostly for fitness.  Like most people I live in the ‘burbs and beyond the daily walks there isn’t too much of a chance to get in some bigger off leash workouts and with the high grouse drumming counts this spring I wanted to make sure she was in shape right at the start of the season.

In talking with Jerry Kolter, breeder / trainer / trialer, we decided to go with a combination of free running and atv roading.  Jerry had Tina the first six years and used her as one of his string when he did guided ruffed grouse hunts so he his familiar with Tina and how she can best be brought into full fitness.  On the plus side Tina weighed 4 pounds less than she did last summer and I think is in better shape to start with.

Now that the dog is rounding into shape what about the weak link in the team?  Yeah, that would be me.  I’ve been riding my bike but due to work travel, weird illnesses, wet weather and a lack of motivation I’ve ridden only about one half of what I had in last summer.  To make up for it I’ve been trying to eat better ( 2 brats instead of 3, the small basket of onion rings instead of the large.. it’s all relative ).  Lift some weights.  I was finding my arms were getting tired just from shooting three rounds of trap.  I even did my first run in over five years today.  This is all a far cry from the days when I was fairly fit and never gave a thought to having to get into shape for the hunting season.

One of the things driving the desire to get in better shape is that I have some high school neighbor boys who want to hunt and after seeing them come home from their football two-a-days I know I have to pick it up so they don’t leave me huffing and puffing.

So there you go, the dog is working out, I’m working out and now all we need is for the seasons to start, the weather to play nice, and rest will be up to the hunting gods. 

Northwoods Bird Dogs