I was talking to a woman at our kennel club who hunt tests her curly coated retriever, which is what spurred my investigative efforts on the internet, and, since I happen to work with a couple of serious, committed, hunters, I sounded them out about bird dog training. The dog has to be motivated but you have to teach it how to use the motivation and a lot of the steps are not all that different than advanced obedience training. The dog has to be what they call "steady to shot," and "steady to wing," which means that they have to be able to not freak out at the loud sound of the guns and obey anyway and also when the game flushes skyward, they have to "down," when told to so the hunters can take their shot. For some time now, I have been trying to assess whether this might be something for Fiona and I to do together. Freeze dried pigeon wings aren't all that expensive. We'll start in the house and then outside, I will hide it in bushes and see how she does locating it with her nose. I intend to take her to the park and let her chase the geese again this year and see if she has an appetite for flushing. She did okay last year. Even if it doesn't exactly go anywhere, it will be something fun for the three of us to do as I intend to bring my beagle with us.
