Thread: Pointer and Setter Trials

If those chicks were dudes they'd look gay.

the madness of it all Toby after several wines -- is one sober enough to discern

This weekend is champ trials for anyone in the Tuakau area interested in attending , 2 challenge points up for grab in the pointer and setter .There should be a good mix of breeds to watch also .I will make an effort to get a few pictures and post them for anyone interested .

This may be a dumd question but do you shoot the birds the dogs point in the trails?

Originally Posted by Toby

This may be a dumd question but do you shoot the birds the dogs point in the trails?

Nah Bro...
Trials are always outside the shooting season. Probably last live game trials are Easter and around that time before shooting season. Then September you've got few pigeon and live game trials as well... That is one part.
The second part is we can't shoot trapped pigeons by law...
Interesting tho, spaniel trials they shoot bunnies... I think birds on some too...

Yeah, Spaniel Trials run both during the season and outside it, so they shoot gamebirds when in season and rabbits / hares etc when outside of the season. So the retrieve is on hot, freshly shot (and occasionally wounded) game.

In P&S Live Game Trials, you only need to do a retrieve on a cold, dead gamebird in the Open level. There is no retrieve component in P&S Live Game trials at Novice level.

I thought a pheasant dog pointing a rabbit is bad?

Originally Posted by Toby

I thought a pheasant dog pointing a rabbit is bad?

Nothing wrong with pointing dog working rabbit as long as they do everything right.... As I always say, you go out to hunt if a dog does what they should do properly I would shoot one for them, and for the freezer...

I am not sure tho how the scoring on trials goes for rabbits, my understanding is that they won't penalize you for properly worked rabbit by a pointing dog, but they won't reward you for it either. If they chase and bark then you get thrown out...
End of the day you are there to hunt birds, and the scoring is done on bird with the PnS trials, if there is no work done on a bird then they can't score you for a being a bird dog

How many ditch diggers are going to the trials this weekend, hope you low brow hood rats do ok

This ditch digger is going to low brow it ........... fun fun as always Big Z

Originally Posted by Petros_mk

Nothing wrong with pointing dog working rabbit as long as they do everything right.... As I always say, you go out to hunt if a dog does what they should do properly I would shoot one for them, and for the freezer...

I am not sure tho how the scoring on trials goes for rabbits, my understanding is that they won't penalize you for properly worked rabbit by a pointing dog, but they won't reward you for it either. If they chase and bark then you get thrown out...
End of the day you are there to hunt birds, and the scoring is done on bird with the PnS trials, if there is no work done on a bird then they can't score you for a being a bird dog

Your are right in saying if they do it right there is no problem but it is hard to keep a dog controlled well with the bunnies in a trial . I think if your trialing it is best to let your dogs know Rabbits are not what you want -I chastise my dog for getting on to them but each to his own on what they want in there dog.A further thought , you probably want your dog doing the basics correctly first also before allowing any Rabbiting to go on also other wise I really think it would be detrimental to faster learning for the dog

Originally Posted by upnorth uplander

How many ditch diggers are going to the trials this weekend, hope you low brow hood rats do ok

17 entries in each of the trials

thats a big turn out for sure !

Just throwing some thoughts out here for the experienced or less experienced .
Interested to hear thoughts on Trialing and winning and what each person does to advance a teams skill -what is it that a handler does with a dog that keeps it winning compared to a dog that doesn't ? Is the thought process and mind focus much different between people winning and not winning ?We can read all the books and watch the videos but don't win ?
Some dogs and handlers just keep performing and seem to just have an edge on knowing what to do . How much does a dog learn just by doing it and how much does the handler actually contribute after a time .I let my dog off the lead and he goes -occasionally doesn't come back for a time ..... but in the open cover just does his thing with a few directional prompts
Living in the city makes bird training hard in the week days but yard training happens while I walk as Im pretty bad at stationary training .I was thinking about this the other day -when I walk the dog where I live its not just to exercise them as I always have a focus on prompting an encounter with a bird and talking to my dogs softly with an encouraging tone to create excitement when near a dirty old Puk .Crossing the road I try to teach steadiness with a wait command before the dogs leave the foot path --I walk forward but they cant ..Inti my older dog moves sometimes and defiantly more than the little one . Walking in the weekends out of the city I treat as the family day out where the dogs know we are in bird country -I try to keep a little bit of order letting one go and the other heel -swapping them in and out and letting one point and leading the other in to back where possible
What are you guys doing to install discipline in their dog and to help the dog understand your a hunting team ??

who remembers this show . Im sure a good Shepard could teach a thing or two about team work with his dog .great dog work with the boss .