Posted: 8/21/2017 9:14:29 AM EDT
Or: Can I Train a Functional Bird Dog? 
We brought Sherman out of Georgia this past weekend, after an Anyhow, Sherman's a 15-week old Wirehaired Vizsla. WVs are pretty rare dogs, with only a few thousand of them around the world, and were developed in the inter-war period in Hungary by crossing German Wirehairs with the regular flat-coated Vizsla. He'll be about 60lb when he's all grown up, with a beard and eyebrows.  
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What do you plan on hunting over him?
Eta: nice looking pup, btw. 30 years ago, guy I knew got one that wouldn't hunt for nuthin'. Gunshy. He was p.o.'ed as he spent good money on the dog back in the day. Good luck with yours. |
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Originally Posted By bailagent100:
What do you plan on hunting over him? Eta: nice looking pup, btw. 30 years ago, guy I knew got one that wouldn't hunt for nuthin'. Gunshy. He was p.o.'ed as he spent good money on the dog back in the day. Good luck with yours.
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Do the point? or just pile in and jump the birds like a springer spaniel?
Those ringnecks used to drive our pointer nuts. They'd hold still, he'd point, in a few seconds they'd break and run 10 or 12 feet and stop again. He'd break point, close on them, point, they'd hold for a few seconds and then run again. The springer spaniel didn't have any issues with them. Never caught any on the ground (he was almost 10 years old by then and had slowed down, but he used to occasionally catch a ruffed grouse.) I don't know how much experience you have with dogs, so don't take this wrong. My dad raised bird dogs for years (pointers, springer spaniels and English setters). He'd kept ruffed grouse, pheasant and turkey tail feathers/tails. He'd go outside with his .22 and some .22 shorts. He'd let the puppies go around smelling for the bird feathers and then he'd shoot a .22 short and watch them. Then he'd get some tail feathers down from the shed roof and let the pups smell the feathers a bit (somebody always wants to bite them to keep their brother/sister from getting them, so you have to watch that). Then he'd put the feathers up, let them mill around a bit and shoot the .22 short again. The down would come the feathers for a group smell/slobber session. He'd graduate to .22 long rifles over the weeks and then to a 20 ga. (had one of us shoot it up above the garden - about 100 yds. from where he was with the pups) and out would come the feathers again. Eventually he'd be out back shooting a 12 ga with the pups around his feet and letting them smell the feathers. Come bird season the ones he kept were good to go. He had a couple cases, later on, of some jackasses tossing packs of fire crackers over the fence on his dogs. After that they'd be afraid of thunder, afraid of hearing a gun going off somewhere else - but once he got his shotgun out they were ready to go hunting and not afraid of the noise once they were in the woods and hunting. Good luck. I was always hunting for the game. I was never a "dog guy" like my dad. He'd go bird hunting, walk for miles and miles with the dogs and come back and tell you which dog did what, how many birds they jumped (or didn't jump) and when asked why he'd been gone so long and walked so far for so few birds he'd just say he really enjoyed watching the dogs work. |
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Originally Posted By M1A4ME:
Do the point? or just pile in and jump the birds like a springer spaniel? Those ringnecks used to drive our pointer nuts. They'd hold still, he'd point, in a few seconds they'd break and run 10 or 12 feet and stop again. He'd break point, close on them, point, they'd hold for a few seconds and then run again. The springer spaniel didn't have any issues with them. Never caught any on the ground (he was almost 10 years old by then and had slowed down, but he used to occasionally catch a ruffed grouse.) *snip* Good luck. I was always hunting for the game. I was never a "dog guy" like my dad. He'd go bird hunting, walk for miles and miles with the dogs and come back and tell you which dog did what, how many birds they jumped (or didn't jump) and when asked why he'd been gone so long and walked so far for so few birds he'd just say he really enjoyed watching the dogs work. Vizslas tend to work closer and more thoroughly than a lot of the other upland dogs, which is a big part of my interest. A lot of my hunting is done in Nebraska with my father-in-law and brother-in-law, or a few hours west of where I live in Minnesota, so I don't all that often find myself in a position to go hunting for just a morning or afternoon -- I'd rather have a dog who can handle a steady pace all day or for a couple days, that will work thoroughly within range, than a dog that's constantly going balls-out (meaning I have to do the same) and is wiped out by the end of the day. My old man was disabled by the time he was teaching me to hunt, so most of my early hunting was under some pretty significant limitations resulting in infrequent, small totals in the game bag. I don't need to limit out on birds; if I can get out and have a good time with the dog, my friends, and my family, and get a couple birds along the way, I'm happy. Appreciate the input on acclimating to the gun 
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We took a little drive down to one of the backwater sloughs off the Mississippi here in the Twin Cities, and Sherman got to do some exploring. Water was interesting but a little scary. Grasshoppers were pretty fascinating, though.
He pretty quickly figured out how to ride in the truck. Pic here shows his face starting to get fuzzy before his beard comes in. 
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Great looking dog. I love Vizslas and have a smooth haired male myself. 14 months now. There is no tiring them out. They are outstanding in the field and mine got a Field Dog Junior championship title at 11 months earlier this summer. First test was in May when he was just 10. Trained him myself with my 5 year old son. They are great pets too. Good luck with yours and keep us posted.Attached File Attached File Attached File |
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I was lucky enough to come away from pheasant opener with a bird, so Sherman's had a pheasant to play around with for the last couple days. He's still working on figuring out how to get his mouth around something as big as a pheasant, but he's definitely interested in the bird and using his nose.
Getting bigger: 
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Had a busy hunting season and early winter, so I've clearly been remiss in keeping things updated.
Sherman's not quite 10 months old now, and seems to have plateaued at 50lbs, which is pretty much squarely in the middle of where he should be, per the breed standard. 
We spent the winter doing basic obedience stuff, and spending some time with a professional trainer to get him on some birds. He initially didn't show a ton of interest, but seems to have stepped up his game over the last few weeks. I shot three quail over him last week with the trainer, and we're planning on heading to a game farm sometime in the next few weekends to go after some chukar. |
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Meet Zirka (means Star in Hungarian). She does not hunt, except for a new place to nap.
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Originally Posted By penrod72:
Meet Zirka (means Star in Hungarian). She does not hunt, except for a new place to nap. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/33704/IMG_20180310_221317654~2-478203.JPG |
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Took Sherman up to one of the local game farms on Saturday for some pheasant exposure. We had snow Friday night, which made for occasional unpleasant walking but was very helpful in terms of spotting bird tracks and covering old scent. There were nine birds in the field. Aside from one hen who didn't seem particularly motivated to fly, Sherman did very well. He missed one bird that was in tight cover, but once I called him back in that direction, he found her and held. He locked up tight on two points, to the point of needing to call him off the first one as the bird moved, which impressed me, since we haven't done much work on holding point in favor of building drive. He seemed to have a little confusion about how to pick up a pheasant, but made two very good retrieves that morning. One was a rooster that dropped about 40 yards out, which he pinned and brought back directly. Definitely a promising day with a lot of encouraging progress. 
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| Just awesome. We had some pretty nasty hunting days here also with the snow. I found some stuff called Musher's Secret Pet Paw Protection Wax that has worked really well with snow not packing between my Brittany's toes. I tried the whole booties thing, she just runs right out of them. |
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