When you see it you need to stop it or watch with uncertainty.
I’ll give them a few hundred yards pouring out a cloud of dust but they need to peel off and start to hunt at some point, right?
Control the running to run mode and know how to read the situations that cause a trail of dust to be left behind. Learn to turn your bird dog without stopping the drive and control what’s happening “bringing them back into the hunt”. Over time most bird dog’s will instinctively know where to find birds and will be on auto-pilot, control and field obedience is left to the dog’s on the ground.
It’s those early years in a bird dog’s life.
Polishing and grooming your personal hunting traits, learning how to work as a team, instilling trust and confidence and having fun. So, if your bird dog is blowing past birds that you know are on the ground, then it’s time for some ‘ground’ discipline. You don’t want to take out any bird drive or instinctive nature of birdyness, but you want to help teach ground manners and why we are out here i.e. finding and holding birds!
If you are watching this happen here’s my suggestion: Set your dog up for success with birds the dog just blew by, ‘a controlled success’. Stop your dog, walk over to your dog correcting any movement (pressure only no verbal commands) and stand next to your dog, wait just a second or two and release your dog into the direction of the birds using a verbal command ‘EASY’. This command is important to train with and master, it teaches the dog to slow down and work an area better than just blowing by. Also, enforcing a control boundary (distance) and being consistent in enforcing a boundary when hunting is helpful.
A different kind of dust.
Like a bronco rider just trying to hold on so was Sir Willey! With a billowing cloud of dust he comes out of the thick bush riding on the back of a Javelina. What’s you do next matters! Master the command “LEAVE IT”
AZPointingDog, LLC