Retrieving in the field.

[Mikeg]

Hi I am new to the group and this is my first post. I have a 3yr old black lab and started picking up with him. He is fine in training but the minute he goes to a shoot he gets so excited when he hears gunshot he can't control himself! His steadiness can go and lunges to go for the retrieve and lately after the drive has finished I have sent him after a retrieve which he races down to pick up, then spots another bird drops it and runs over to that one. Last weekend on a drive he did this about three times as were lots of birds scattered and was difficult to get him bring back the/any retrieve. I've tried placing lots of dummies around him in training which he is fine with. It seems the excitement of the day gets on top of him and gets sensory overload. Any advice would welcome! Thanks.

[trekmoor]

Take him to clay pigeon shoots and let him hear so many bangs with no birds to retrieve that he gets bored enough to fall asleep.

Where bird swapping is concerned, most picking-up dogs will swap birds especially if birds galore are falling all around on a bare field. Wait for the end of the drive before releasing your dog after having thoroughly taught it directional work and stop and recall to whistle.

Send your dog for as few birds as possible instead of as many as possible , pick easy birds yourself......or let someone elses dog get most of the fallen birds.

Or ......be where pickers up are really useful ......way back from the guns by multiples of 100 yards. Pick up the runners back there then, when the end of drive horn sounds, begin to work your way towards the pegs picking up occasional birds as you go.

If your dog can swap birds a lot then you are too close to the pegs . Most of those birds can be picked by hand or by the guns peg dogs or maybe by the beaters dogs.

I often pick up as much as 200 yards back from the guns. In fact if the guns are in a field then I am likely to be in the wood towards which the birds are being driven. I do not get nearly as many birds for my dogs to retrieve as the dogs nearer to the pegs but my dogs birds are birds worth getting.
I often put only a couple of birds in the game cart at the end of a drive and "suffer" the pitying looks from picking-up newbies who have been not far from the guns and who have brought back as many as 20 birds each. These pickers up probably think I bring back so few birds because my dogs are crap.
In truth just about any dog would have found the majority of the birds their dogs brought back. A man with a big sack could take the place of picking-up dogs just behind the guns on open fields.

Welcome to the forum ! Didn't mean to jump down your throat but good picking-up isn't done right behind the guns.

Wullie

[ormeview]

Hi and welcome,
Great advice as usual from Wullie, can't really add much to that advice other than get yourself away from the guns and pick up the birds that have made it to cover. Those birds that fall 100yds + behind are a real bonus to pick and it teach your dog to hunt rather than using its eyes.

It can blow an inexperienced dogs brain being in close proximity to so many birds falling in the open, most if not all will swap birds.

Dave.

[James]

You say hes fine in training but in truth hes not is he? You have either missed or rushed a lot of the basics when younger. You now have a tough job of steadying a 3 year old dog thats already had chances to self reward on a days shooting.
You have to go back a fair way in training and rebuild.