[DutchmanAZ]

Took Coco (the new dog I acquired last week) out to Desert Pheasant Recreation for a tune up. Her original owner said she hadn't hunted in 2 years. I had Bob from DPR put out 4 bobwhites for us.
I really didn't know what to expect because this was out first time out together. She started out pretty slow, acting like she wasn't sure what I wanted her to do. She finally started ranging out and quartering away, getting a little further out each pass.
It took her a while, but she eventually locked up (left my camera in the jeep ) and held pretty steady.
I flushed the bird, missed the 1st shot, and got it with the second. Coco was on the bird in an instant, ran back to me, and dropped it at my feet. I swear she gave me a look like "Now I know what we're doing!" and off she went again. She got 2 more before I made her stop. She's a little out of shape and I didn't want to push her too much.
I'll take her back out there again next weekend and we'll do a few more.
She is really something..If she started getting too far out, all I had to do was whistle, she'd look, and respond to hand signals. I just pointed and she went that way. Bill (her original owner) really did a heck of a job with her.
Here's a tired Coco resting by the jeep:

Wants some water..

 

[Justin]

Nice looking dog. I'm sure Coco will become a great hunting dog in the future. Makes me really want a hunting dog.

 

[Guest]

Good Post Ron, Great looking Dog- Looks better then the owner :mrgreen: . Nice pictures also thanks for sharing you day down in Coolidge. Are you taking your Dogs out Quail hunting this year?

 

[DutchmanAZ]

Yep - I'll be taking Coco for sure. Still have a little work to do with my other one, but should know more about that this weekend. I'll be taking her out as well to see how she's progressing.

 

[Guest]

Is Farley trained also? When I had my shorthair I used her more as a retriever than a pointer, ducks and dove. During quail season she worked rather in close and I used her more to flush than point, also used her on rabbits. When we lived in Germany we found out how versatible they really are, they used them for everying from birds to varmint to deer.

 

[DutchmanAZ]

Chief,

Farley has been started, and will point and hold(mostly) until the flush and shot. What I'm not sure about is if I can trust her to not run off. She's a little scatterbrained but has one heck of a nose.
Right now she responds perfectly on a lead, but once she's off, she seems to go deaf at times. I've just introduced an e-collar on her last weekend to help restore her hearing. She did okay. I'll work some more with her tonight.
Depending on how she does by the end of the week, I'll take her out to DPR along with Coco and see how she does.

Interesting about the other uses for the GSP's. I recall reading they were raised for fur and feather, and actually could be very good all around dogs. I haven't done anything beyond bird training with her yet. I'm new to the dog training game too, so it's taking a while

 

[DutchmanAZ]

Farley tune-up

I decided to take my other GSP, Farley, out and give her a try. We got out there a little later than what I wanted and turns out I probably should have stayed at home.
Put the e-collar on her and off we went in search of some freshly planted bobwhites. I simply let Farley go, and she halls tail out through the desert field looking scatterbrained, but pattering pretty well. Due to my "experience" with my other dog, I tried blowing the whistle to get her attention when she ranged too far left or right. To my suprise, she actually responded fairly well. She locked up on point beautifully and waited for my son & I to reach her. The darned bird screwed it up and wouldn't fly right away, but we finally got it to come out. My son was shooting, and missed twice with the dog in hot pursuit of the quail. Blew the whistle...nothing. Hit the number 1 botton on the collar - nothing. On to number 2...nothing. At this time I'm wondering what the heck is going on.
Luckily the bird landed in a bush, and Farley caught it & brought it back . Still a little curious about what was going on with the collar, I tried to get her to come to me and hold still long enough for me to check it out.
Nothing doing...she dropped the bird at my feet and off she went again. Hit 1, 2, and finally 3 with no results.
I'm thinking I was gonna lose my dog, but she locked up again about 100 yards out, and held until we got there.
The bird flushed, Zach nailed it, and the dog came back with the bird. I was a little quicker this time, and got a hold of her. I put her on a lead and removed the collar. While doing so, Farley somehow bit her tongue badly, and was bleeding like crazy. We walked back to the car and gave her water, and tried to clean her up. I realized then I had lef the collar out in the desert. Had to walk back and managed to find it. Farley had mostly stopped bleeding and was ready to hunt some more. I checked the collar function and found I had forgot to program the stupid thing after letting the battery run dead. Better yet, I had left the instructions home.
We were disapointed, but decided it was better to bring her back another day when we could ensure we could better control her. As I've said before, I'm new at this, and she may have done fine. Chances are she would have, but after investing so much time and $$ in her to this point, I didnt want to take the chance.
Oh well, perhaps next weekend...

 

[Guest]

I never really "trained" my GSP, she was a house/family dog first and a hunter second, although she really enjoyed going out with me. She wanted to please us so much that it seemed she just understood what to do when we went hunting. I never lost a bird when she was with me, regardless of how long she had to search she never gave up. I still miss her.