A Cornerstone Guide to Your Gun Dog Introduction to Birds

Two of the most frequent questions we get asked here at Cornerstone are...

1. When should I introduce my dog to birds?
2. How should I introduce my dog to birds?

The answers to these questions are crucial because they can have a significant impact on how your retriever turns out!

First, when should I introduce my dog to birds? 

Many people are understandably eager to introduce their young puppies to birds. If that's you, have you stopped to consider the possible ramifications? After all, the goal is to take your pup and turn it into the best hunting retriever that it can be.

With that in mind, here are a few things to consider. You could introduce your dog to birds early on when it is a puppy; however, you aren’t going to get the full benefit of bird intro.

This is especially the case if you give a little puppy a bird to hold. It will probably end up just dragging the heavy bird around or worse. It could even chew it up like a toy.

There are a lot more beneficial things that you could spend your time working on that will have much better results and even set you up for greater success in the future!

With that said, if you just can't resist, then you could always begin introducing your puppy to a bird wing, which will introduce your pup to the scent of birds.

What's most beneficial?

Instead of worrying about introducing your puppy to birds, I would recommend spending your time on getting the basic fundamentals down. That will give you a foundation to build off of, so your dog is set up for success when you get to bird introduction later on.

If my dog has the basics down, how do I intro birds?

It's best to start off simple and easy. Take something familiar to your dog, the bumper, and tape something an unfamiliar object, the bird wing, to one side of it.

I typically use electrical tape to secure the bird wing on the bumper. You can use whatever kind of bird wing you would like. Choose depending on the type of hunting that you plan to do or based on what you have available to you.

To introduce the bumper with a bird wing on it, start by letting your pup get comfortable with it. Hold the bumper while your dog sniffs. Then, have your dog fetch and hold the bumper.

The goal is to avoid letting your dog chew or bite the wing while also avoiding any harsh corrections because you want this to be a fun and positive learning experience for your dog.

Whenever your dog holds onto the bumper, properly reinforce that behavior by providing a calm and reassuring tone of excitement. Don't expect things to go perfectly or smoothly at first.

When introducing the bumper and wings, you can anticipate needing to take a few steps back compared to what you've been accustomed to. Your dog probably won't grab onto it or have a perfect hold the first few times because it is very new to them. 

Once your dog is comfortable with holding the bumper on both sides (with and without the wing), you can start to try out some easy retrieves. Then as time goes on, you can work your way out to longer retrieves.

After your dog is retrieving the bumper with wings consistently, it is now time to bring out the actual bird. 

To introduce a frozen bird, I typically cut off the wings so that the dog has an easy spot to grab onto. The goal is to set your dog up for success, and removing the wings from a frozen bird is a great way to do that. It will help you teach your dog to pick the bird around its body. 

When I mention that the bird is frozen, it is important to note that the bird will need to be frozen but thawed enough that it has a little give. Otherwise, it will be difficult for your dog to hold the frozen bird.

To prepare for training, make sure to take the bird out of the freezer with enough time to ensure that the bird isn't frozen solid and that your dog will be able to get a nice sturdy hold. 

Working with a frozen bird is very similar to the process mentioned above. Start by having your dog get comfortable with the bird, then have them learn how to hold onto the bird and pick the bird up correctly. Finally, get them comfortable with retrieving the bird. 

It will take a little while for your dog to get used to picking up the bird. Your dog might fumble around with the bird before picking it up or might not have the picture-perfect hold in the beginning. Don't sweat it.

Just encourage the proper behavior, and try to prevent incorrect behavior such as feather pulling or chomping (we don't want to create bad habits here). Your dog will eventually start to get it with enough patience and repetition. 

After your dog is completely comfortable with the full intact bird (retrieving and hold is perfect), it is now time to introduce live birds. A lot of people do not have the opportunity to present live game during the training process. If that's the case, it is not ideal; however, you can wait and introduce your dog to live game on your dog's first hunt. It will require patience on your part and on the part of those you are hunting with.

Just remember your first few hunts with your dog should be more centered around training and not actual hunting for pleasure. Meaning, your main focus is making sure your dog is successful on its first few hunts even if you have to leave the shotgun in its case.

Remember, take your time and set your dog up for success as you train. You will be happy you did!

BuildFromHere,

Joshua Parvin 

P.S. When introducing your lab to birds or any other retrieving breed to birds, doing it the wrong way can cause a lot of problems. We break this down even further in 52 Plus. You can get a free preview of 52 Plus here.