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A Dispatch from Pigeon City
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Man's Best Friend
in your Inbox
April 23, 2010
A Dispatch from Pigeon City
By David DiBenedetto
Man’s Best Friend is in the Big Apple for a few days of work-related travel. But on every street corner I’m reminded of one of gun dog training’s most important building blocks—BIRDS. In this case, pigeons, which are just about perfect for training young gun dogs.
To be honest, it’s one aspect of training game that I wish I had done more of with Pritchard. Here in NYC the pigeons are fat and slow. I’ve caught them before by hand, after luring them close with some bread. But I won’t be doing that this trip. The birds probably wouldn’t go over so well in the security line at LaGuardia airport.
But if you live in the country, there are plenty of farmers who will let you trap pigeons from their haylofts. But be sure you don’t run afoul of any game laws.
Any of you catch your own birds? Get them from a game farm? Or could you use more bird work with your pup?
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Comments (17)
I was told this story is true, but who knows: several years ago Stuttgart AR was suffering a plague of pigeons attracted by the rice elevator in town. A group of duck hunters went to the city council and offered to solve the problem. They asked for downtown to be closed off one Sunday morning. The person who told me the story said: "Those that wanted to shoot got up on the roofs, the rest of us worked our retrievers on Main Street."
Phil- That's a classic. Wish I could have seen it. -D
i used pigeons a lot with Chaos. we didn't need to kill any but he got the flushing thing down really well.
547, 821,691 pigeoens in NY city, but 465468 visit from NJ weekly and 4665465 visit from Connecticut weekly and 22,250,000 from upstae New York and Long Island.We have a couple here to spare.I buy all mine from Ohio(homers and rollers).Great for training too many reasons to list visit GUNDOGS ONLINE to see many uses.I order mine vacinated and medicated thew the mail shipped to door step.A loft of 6 or 8 paired will keep your young dog on birds all training season.Let us know if you make it to up state NY Dave.
I used a method I got from Tom Ness this morning.Got to keep the pattern.Cant wait to have all decoys and duck calls to train around!
My boys have retrieved every species of game bird legal in Washington except doves.
And doves are maybe #1 on the list of desirable birds to eat.
Dove season is next.
Guess I'll find some pigeons and get the guys psyched up and scent-trained before we go.
I UNDERSTAND THAT COST IS AN ISSUE, BUT WHEN I BUY BIRDS FOR TRAINING I USE GAME BIRDS. AT LEAST IF YOU'RE GONNA KILL 'EM YOU CAN EAT 'EM.
I dont kill them at all waldman79 after training they go right back to the loft.I have not lost a homer or roller in training yet but have lost trained fliers to predation
hawks,etc..They live about 3yrs.in the wild and up to 35
yrs.trained.Another great method is a recall pen for
quail,chucker,and pheasant.I dont have the room for that
here wish I did.The small loft is a great way for the rural DIY to train.I prefer the shaker method when I have
help it builds a great pattern in the dog and keeps them
excited about running and of course quartering.Buying wild game birds here is very expensive and not enough places anymore to train on wild ones near home and you are only able to train on wild ones a month here in NY before the season.I do buy pheasant and drive quite far to pick them up but this is too expensive with all things included.There are many reasons why pros use pigeons still too many to list.If there were no pigeons able to be used in all areas there would be a lot of great pro trainers out of buisness and a lot fewer great
trial champions.
That's an awesome story Phil. A while back I did a bit of that myself. We had a bunch of pigeons hanging around in our yard all the time. After five of their buddys succumbed to led poisoning, that seemed to always follow the opening of an upstairs window and the sharp crack of a pellet gun, the survivors decided to leave.
I have heard of trainers useing wild pigeons to train in lofts and about half actually home back.I guess they are the smart ones they know they have it good there.The loft is left open in many cases and they come and go as they please.The US armed forces used pigeons to fly many missions over the years also and to the best of my knowledge still do.A lot less expensive than a multi-million dollar drone and still gets the job done.Talk about going back in time.Check it out pigeons in the US armed forces!YOU WILL BE SURPRISED Team fliers make up to 10,000 a race for the win on the other hand.
But I must report a pigeon Hunt that took place in my home town when I was a young teenager.
Everything was political in that backward community of mental illness.
Beware of causing someone to Lose Face.
A political heavyweight was walking down the street and some pigeon droppings fell upon his suit.
He had the clout of declaring Pigeon Hunting to be legal at the State Docks (inside the city limits) for the weekend.
I was not allowed to go.
For some kind of sick political reason.
But all my friends went, and everybody I talked to at school went..
Hundreds of people.
It was a major grain terminal with tens of miles of turnarounds and loading tracks, so it didn't even put a dent in the bird population.
But the point was made...
What age do you guys recommend introducing a pup to dead birds/live birds? Thanks
Every time he becomes proficient at a task with tennis balls.
Singles,
Doubles,
Triples.
However many...
Blinds.
Don't put this off...
Blinds
I've tried this before and had pigeons in my trap and some know-it-alls let them out by bending my trap up. Where I live now I don't have access to a place to trap them.
www.outdoorwriter.net
Acemy boykin pup has been introduced to dead birds from the first week I got him at 6 weeks. Started with dove, and wood duck wings and then to doves and now ducks on a regular basis. Hes a little over 5 months and loves it. I even introduced him to gun fire using a real duck cause thats what drives him crazy and got his mind off the 12 gauge. He still retrieves the bumpers just as good as he did before even with dead birds being used. I mix it up alot and sometimes use a bumper and a dead bird to train.
A handfull of seed and a good cast net will catch bunches fast. I wonder if a quail trap would work on building tops for pigeons?
cgull- Never thought about a cast net...that's a good idea. -D
Post a Comment
My boys have retrieved every species of game bird legal in Washington except doves.
And doves are maybe #1 on the list of desirable birds to eat.
Dove season is next.
Guess I'll find some pigeons and get the guys psyched up and scent-trained before we go.
I dont kill them at all waldman79 after training they go right back to the loft.I have not lost a homer or roller in training yet but have lost trained fliers to predation
hawks,etc..They live about 3yrs.in the wild and up to 35
yrs.trained.Another great method is a recall pen for
quail,chucker,and pheasant.I dont have the room for that
here wish I did.The small loft is a great way for the rural DIY to train.I prefer the shaker method when I have
help it builds a great pattern in the dog and keeps them
excited about running and of course quartering.Buying wild game birds here is very expensive and not enough places anymore to train on wild ones near home and you are only able to train on wild ones a month here in NY before the season.I do buy pheasant and drive quite far to pick them up but this is too expensive with all things included.There are many reasons why pros use pigeons still too many to list.If there were no pigeons able to be used in all areas there would be a lot of great pro trainers out of buisness and a lot fewer great
trial champions.
But I must report a pigeon Hunt that took place in my home town when I was a young teenager.
Everything was political in that backward community of mental illness.
Beware of causing someone to Lose Face.
A political heavyweight was walking down the street and some pigeon droppings fell upon his suit.
He had the clout of declaring Pigeon Hunting to be legal at the State Docks (inside the city limits) for the weekend.
I was not allowed to go.
For some kind of sick political reason.
But all my friends went, and everybody I talked to at school went..
Hundreds of people.
It was a major grain terminal with tens of miles of turnarounds and loading tracks, so it didn't even put a dent in the bird population.
But the point was made...
Every time he becomes proficient at a task with tennis balls.
Singles,
Doubles,
Triples.
However many...
Blinds.
Don't put this off...
Blinds
I was told this story is true, but who knows: several years ago Stuttgart AR was suffering a plague of pigeons attracted by the rice elevator in town. A group of duck hunters went to the city council and offered to solve the problem. They asked for downtown to be closed off one Sunday morning. The person who told me the story said: "Those that wanted to shoot got up on the roofs, the rest of us worked our retrievers on Main Street."
Phil- That's a classic. Wish I could have seen it. -D
i used pigeons a lot with Chaos. we didn't need to kill any but he got the flushing thing down really well.
547, 821,691 pigeoens in NY city, but 465468 visit from NJ weekly and 4665465 visit from Connecticut weekly and 22,250,000 from upstae New York and Long Island.We have a couple here to spare.I buy all mine from Ohio(homers and rollers).Great for training too many reasons to list visit GUNDOGS ONLINE to see many uses.I order mine vacinated and medicated thew the mail shipped to door step.A loft of 6 or 8 paired will keep your young dog on birds all training season.Let us know if you make it to up state NY Dave.
I used a method I got from Tom Ness this morning.Got to keep the pattern.Cant wait to have all decoys and duck calls to train around!
I UNDERSTAND THAT COST IS AN ISSUE, BUT WHEN I BUY BIRDS FOR TRAINING I USE GAME BIRDS. AT LEAST IF YOU'RE GONNA KILL 'EM YOU CAN EAT 'EM.
That's an awesome story Phil. A while back I did a bit of that myself. We had a bunch of pigeons hanging around in our yard all the time. After five of their buddys succumbed to led poisoning, that seemed to always follow the opening of an upstairs window and the sharp crack of a pellet gun, the survivors decided to leave.
I have heard of trainers useing wild pigeons to train in lofts and about half actually home back.I guess they are the smart ones they know they have it good there.The loft is left open in many cases and they come and go as they please.The US armed forces used pigeons to fly many missions over the years also and to the best of my knowledge still do.A lot less expensive than a multi-million dollar drone and still gets the job done.Talk about going back in time.Check it out pigeons in the US armed forces!YOU WILL BE SURPRISED Team fliers make up to 10,000 a race for the win on the other hand.
What age do you guys recommend introducing a pup to dead birds/live birds? Thanks
I've tried this before and had pigeons in my trap and some know-it-alls let them out by bending my trap up. Where I live now I don't have access to a place to trap them.
www.outdoorwriter.net
Acemy boykin pup has been introduced to dead birds from the first week I got him at 6 weeks. Started with dove, and wood duck wings and then to doves and now ducks on a regular basis. Hes a little over 5 months and loves it. I even introduced him to gun fire using a real duck cause thats what drives him crazy and got his mind off the 12 gauge. He still retrieves the bumpers just as good as he did before even with dead birds being used. I mix it up alot and sometimes use a bumper and a dead bird to train.
A handfull of seed and a good cast net will catch bunches fast. I wonder if a quail trap would work on building tops for pigeons?
cgull- Never thought about a cast net...that's a good idea. -D
Post a Comment