Dogs and Training

If giving the training I doubt it can result in a pointer, but can any dog learn to be a flusher, like pheasant and such.

What are you smoking?

I would think any dog can be trained to be a flusher, respond to commands as long as they are large enough to hunt the amount of land you plan to hunt.

Hell, they don’t need to be trained to be flushers. They will all do it. That is why we spend thousands of dollars on trainers to prevent flushing. Let me do the flushing and we will be fine.

The world stands still while they are pointing. My wife always said that Cookie's job was to pose in the back yard.



Your heart skips a beat when you see them leaving skid marks.

Pretty much. You can train almost any breed to point also. They just won't do as well as upland breeds because they may lack the prey drive, stamina and nose that upland breeds have. Down here the Border Patrol is using Malinois to hunt for disabled illegals. Rather than point the person they find, they return to the handler and sit, then take the handler to the person they found. I suspect the reason they don't use upland breeds is because they have stronger prey drive and may get distracted during the search--then again--it could be the trainer just isn't as familiar with upland breeds. There is no doubt that pointers and gaps would handle the heat better than a Malinois. Many of the searches occur in high 90s.

In regard to a flushing dog: if the natural hunt and birdiness is not there, you can't pour it into a dog. In other words, if you have to teach it to flush, what you end up with will be less than optimum, to put it kindly. With that in mind, although it may charge and flush a bird if it stumbles upon one. Without a singleminded obsession to seek birds, you will likely struggle hunting any dog. You could probably use the same dog to your benefit if you are hunting pointers, particularly in heavy cover, then sending in a flusher. A few more comments about flushing dogs. Flushers with a good nose and a lot of drive can be used to great effect hunting isolated cover that is very dense. Flushers need to work well within shotgun range at all times for the hunter to be in the game. The bulk of training that is done with them has to do with the distance they work from the hunter, rather than teaching to flush. Small patches of cover and very thick cover somewhat negate that lack of range. One scenario I have a lot of experience where a flusher shines is hunting a running bird like pheasant in cattails. A common strategy in the prairie pothole region. The flushing lab rules the cattail sloughs. In the open quail habitat of texas a good flusher is at a big disadvantage, due to the lesser area a dog covers if he has to maintain close contact with the hunter at all times.

I train all my bird dogs ( DD's) to flush. they point hold until I get to them then I tap them on the head to flush or click them in to flush. Forrest

I have a jack russell that WOULD flush, BUT, there is no off switch