Reggie's intro to live birds

[Dani]

We got some nice, cool weather for Thanksgiving so I took the dogs out to the quail lease. I wanted to run some energy off the dogs and introduce Reggie to live birds.

They ran some energy off first before I put any birds out. Belle found a wild covey and when they flushed Reg was like huh?



Well, Belle was fired up and that helped Reg run off more energy. We got back to the truck and Belle had another unexpected point



There was a single that Reggie got really interested in cuz it flushed closer to him than the covey did. Still he was a bit oblivious. But interested.

I put out four quail after putting them both on the chain gang. Then I took Reggie over to try to find some of the quail I put out. Look close. The can has an extra decoration on it. Reggie didn't think anything of that little rooster as I was trying to knock it off the can with his lead



But there was a quail that was not a good flier. It acted very much like a barely tipped cripple. Reg got to use his nose to find her, getting into thick stuff and she moved often enough to keep him interested. Finally he got her.



Afterwards, it was Belle's turn. She found two birds that I shot for her. I used those birds later to play dead bird games with Reg. He is making great progress. The light is not totally on but it sure isn't dark.

Now if only I could keep him from drowning all his toys in the water bowls or toilet or ponds or bath. He is a dog that really enjoys diving and hunting things under the water.

 

[MLBob Furia]

[size 4] Reg is a handsome boy!
I bet he'll catch on quick.

 

[Todd Duncan Tennyson]

Dani, Good job for getting them out to work together.

I used to take a frozen Bufflehead and put it in a womens nylon stocking. We'd grab the frozen bird anytime we went to go for a walk in the fields/woods. I'd lob it into the brush and sometimes get the dog to sit and wait for me to drag it along the ground and hide it in the bramble and then we'd turn him loose to find it.

It was an effective method to get him trained up and educated as far as bird scent, helped him find and retrieve by repeating it over and over on our daily jaunts.

It was never over 32* so that little duck remained frozen and fit just perfectly into the women's stocking. I bet we used it for a couple of weeks every day. It held up pretty well, when we got back, I'd just throw it in the freezer in the garage.