Be careful about the howling though, my friend lives in a development and his dog howled, the HOA made him have the dogs vocal cords removed or whatever that surgery is that makes it so that they cant bark
Falcon Boy Apprentice Falconry Administrator
Ethics make the individual, not the other way around.
The old sayiing ..."to good to be true" is coming to mind. My new dog, "Buddy", is really coming along well. I'm supposed to walk for an hour a night as post surgical therapy for my back. I've combined that with letting Buddy run in the country. I have a friend, quail hunter, who i spoke about in an earlier post. I go to his place with Buddy every evening now. Buddy comes on command regularly and consistently. He comes to voice, hand and whistle commands. He "whoas" (stays or stands depending on what the dog is trained for apparently) better every day. Yesterday he was given the command to Whoa. I walked about 100 feet from him and stood there for three minutes. He didn't budge. I called him and he trotted directly to me. He didn't even act interested in going any where else. I sent him back into the field and he bounded away like a pup. He found a quail, locked up, then busted the point (geeesh, i hope i'm using these terms correctly ) and chased it half way across the field. But when i called him, he let the bird fly on and immediately returned to me. It was really exciting to watch. Here's the best thing, though; Max, my three year old, is in love with him. He waits for me to get home after our "countyr runs" every night to play with him in the back yard. He commands Buddy to come, i give buddy the hand signal and Max thinks he's the one working the dog. Max loves it! The Biggest thing is that my wife has accepted Buddy as a house dog. He sleeps at he foot of our bed now. Will wonders ever cease?
I'm not worried about the hawk-dog relationship. I can handle that. But it's a long ways off. I'm going to teach him to hunt bunnies, which is a pure abomination to my bird hunter friends. It might even make Buddy a social outcast. But i'm going to do it anyway. In the book Rabbit Hawker's Dogs, Oakes, Ivy writes about a dog that pointed birds AND hunted rabbits with the best of them. That's my goal. We'll see how close i get.
Well Bob I'm probably being a little nieve (can't even spell it) but I don't see where that should be a problem Buddy is breaking off the chase. In theory if he will point birds then getting him to point rabbit is a matter of getting him to reconnize the sent. The next step or perhaps the first step is to get Buddy to look to the ground for sent. As a bird dog I'm told that they look to the air for scent. As for being an out cast he shall be envied for he shall join an elte group that only a few talented dogs can join. Besides who's voice do you hear louder the ones yelled over the blast of a shot gun or the delicate pride of a succesfull falconer.
The Falconers, of course ;D. I came home from my nightly run with Bud about 8:00 pm last night. We were walking to the kennels in the backyard when Buddy spotted a rabbit. Out of curiousity i told him to "get the rabbit" ("get the bird" is his release command). Man, I had no idea rabbits could run that fast! Buddy chased that thing plumb into the next block! No use in even trying stop him. He was gone! I can't have that. I want him to flush rabbits, not scare them into the next county! Buddy came trotting back to the house from about a block and a half away within maybe, three minutes. I wonder what happened to that rabbit?
Well we now know that he knows what a rabbit is. AS if there was any dout. now to get him to just point the rabbit and break off when called. Good luck Bob.
I guess the main thing is that my son, Max the 3 y/o, has really taken to him. That means that my wife likes him, so he get to stay in the house! He has his basic obedience down pat. He can be in a dead run after a rabbit... 2 blasts on the whistle and he spins on his heels and runs back to me! I've just started him on birds this week. I'm using pigeons for now. He has only worked with them twice, but both times he sniffed them out and started to mouth them. He seemed to like it and it looks like he has a good, soft mouth. I haven't started working on holding point yet. The rest of this week is going to be dedicated to getting him excited about finding birds. If he's successful at this, i have a hunting companion ;D. If not, I have a pet . Wish me luck!