Hi all,

i just wonderd if any one has seen a lack of rabbits on their training grounds or permmisions. I know we are still coming out of winter, but i am having trouble training my dog over some sent . Even if i am out at daybreak or sundown i am not having much luck on getting a flush to steady him on or scent to handle him on . Its hard to get him flowing with nothing to work on. I am using the trainers pen every now and then but we just need some scent closer to home.

Just wonderd if any one else has trouble polishing the training over winter ?

Regards Gavin. 

GAVIN at March 5, 2011 at 2:49 PM

Hi all,

i just wonderd if any one has seen a lack of rabbits on their training grounds or permmisions. I know we are still coming out of winter, but i am having trouble training my dog over some sent . Even if i am out at daybreak or sundown i am not having much luck on getting a flush to steady him on or scent to handle him on . Its hard to get him flowing with nothing to work on. I am using the trainers pen every now and then but we just need some scent closer to home.

Just wonderd if any one else has trouble polishing the training over winter ?

Regards Gavin. 

We have a lot of rabbits here, mostly seen at night time, a few can be seen in the evenings now at a distance but they all go to ground by the time we get to the area, the scent although a few minutes old is obviously still on the ground.

We have lots on Shrops/Ches border and far too many babies at the mo!

Plenty in my part of Hertfordshire.

Well enjoy working your dogs i will have to use the house a couple of doors up they seem to have a couple hopping about in the garden.

Regards Gavin.

GAVIN at March 7, 2011 at 5:04 AM

Well enjoy working your dogs i will have to use the house a couple of doors up they seem to have a couple hopping about in the garden.

Regards Gavin.

Wot pet ones?  

GAVIN at March 7, 2011 at 5:04 AM

Well enjoy working your dogs i will have to use the house a couple of doors up they seem to have a couple hopping about in the garden.

Regards Gavin.

Wot ................................. pet ones?

On my estate mike thats the best you can get they probably woudnt flush anyway;). of course there are plenty of horses free grazing on our front gardens could get Barclay steady on them.

Regards gavin.

got hares as well.......bloody massive problem keeping Lilly steady when they are about lol

You struggle to see rabbits up here at all, they have been hammerd by a disease & prey. Years ago the fields were moving up here and it was nothing to shoot a few hundred a night and it was nothing to do through a thousand rounds of ammo in a short space of time. . There are hares here but they dont do much damage so are not shot on a regular basis, they are managed to a certain extent.

Good heavens Carol, if rabbits were being shot by the hundred then no wonder they are scarce now - the control worked!  They are resiliant little things but only if Mr Bunny can find Mrs Bunny.

Along one of the fields where I walk Ollie the track is bordered by woods on one side and the filed on the other.  Every year the crop (Rape or Wheat) is always badly damaged for about 12 feet into the field, then it's fine.  At this border there is a neat line of rabbit droppings.  A couple of years back the bunnies were blitzed but have bounced back and need doing again. 

Neill at March 8, 2011 at 2:41 AM

Good heavens Carol, if rabbits were being shot by the hundred then no wonder they are scarce now - the control worked!  They are resiliant little things but only if Mr Bunny can find Mrs Bunny.

Along one of the fields where I walk Ollie the track is bordered by woods on one side and the filed on the other.  Every year the crop (Rape or Wheat) is always badly damaged for about 12 feet into the field, then it's fine.  At this border there is a neat line of rabbit droppings.  A couple of years back the bunnies were blitzed but have bounced back and need doing again. 

You should hear some of the story's from the hare shoots  Biggest lesson was not to be too keen and shoot them early as you just had them to carry all day LOL !!

Too right Carol, a decent Hare can weigh 12lb or more.  There's a good piece in last weeks Shooting Times on them, apparently for a WCS to carry a hare is roughly the same as a 12stone man carrying a six stone bag of tatties in his mouth:D

Sharon Harding at March 7, 2011 at 6:05 PM

got hares as well.......bloody massive problem keeping Lilly steady when they are about lol

Yes we have hares here,  they hide very well and get up in front of the dog, at the moment I am teaching Tegwyn to drop to flush on them.

Neill at March 8, 2011 at 7:55 AM

Too right Carol, a decent Hare can weigh 12lb or more.  There's a good piece in last weeks Shooting Times on them, apparently for a WCS to carry a hare is roughly the same as a 12stone man carrying a six stone bag of tatties in his mouth:D

I read that Neill. "Do we expect too much from our cockers" ? Considering they were bred for woodcock. I dont know, the little beggers enjoy themselves and tbh who care if the delivery isnt perfect LOL!!! I certainly know even with my Labs a hare is a big thing, the geese also are a challenge but its all good fun thats what I say. and good eating I may add  Well not the hare for me, the Italians put in a order once a year here as they love it

I'd certainly not stop Ollie trying to retrieve a Hare, but we are strictly no ground game on our shoot, and under normal circumstances I don't think we expect too much of them.  However there was a trial late last year though where at least two Cockers were DQ'd because they stopped on the way back, put the hare down for a second or so and picked it up again.  I do think that is asking too much:)

I had Shooting times delievered to my house for several years, I couldn't keep up with a weekly, and would read stories of the large bunny populations. It was amazing.

I have rabbits and they are commonly seen, they're called Cotton-tails and they look slightly smaller than the UK bunny.

 I've increased my own population somewhat on my property by making brush piles and the first couple years here I threw ears of field corn and apples from my trees for them during the hard winter months.

But the fact is,  we got too many predators here for really large populations, hawks of all kinds, owls, coyotes, fox, even the ever mighty hunter the house cat take their share of young ones.  

Although I personally like rabbits, use them all the time, however in my opinion people here do not use them to the degree that you all use them. Speaking generally, I would say the homing pigeon and pen raised birds are used most commonly in training, but then maybe spaniels are used more as bird-dogs here.     

mike

Mine does retrieve hares all though they adjust the once or twice on the way home. And we eat the hares as well.

Mike

This probably needs another thread, but please could you enlighten me as to what a "bird dog" does, I suspect it's pretty much the same as we do here in the Uk but I'm not sure.

Neill I'll be brief,,,,,,,, it's a matter of attitude and training style combined with the lack of abundance of game on the ground. The dog is hunting for game, not on game.

 Not utilizing the dog as an allrounder but rather soley on birds. Certainly in the case of Springers.

I think that is where we get the head up and sweeping quartering pattern, often more setter like in appearance seen in our springers.

Can a difference be seen between a dog that is regularly worked on rabbits vs. one which hasn't had them included in the scheme of things at all, by the way it goes about it's work?

well,,,,I tried to be brief.

mike