How do you teach a young pointer not to bite down on quail?

[Del in KS]

How do you teach a young pointer not to bite down on quail?

[herbie57_57]

I've seen guys wrap a bird in barb wire but I would think that this would make thim shy away from grabbing the bird at all. We used a hard rubber ball to play fetch with our lab until he quit hard mouthing, but my brittney just grew out of it.

[rrmont]

When I was training my Golden I went and got a plastic dummy that had like raised ribs on it and that seemed to do the trick. The ribs were rough on his mouth so he had to learn to pick it up gently.

[victorytw228]

I guess by the other answers you are talking about after the flush and shot. I too have had many birds come back tenderized. Have you thought about getting another dog that will work with your pointer? That way the other one can retrieve. Now if your talking about the dog breaking the flush on the ground or jumping at them when they flush, we used a shock collar and popped him everytime he did this. It took awhile but he finally figured it out.

[herbie57_57]

Like victory said you can use an ecollar too even when the dog is chewing up the birds just be careful that your hand isn't in its mouth when you press the button.

[Chris Carpenter]

My dad always said to shoot one and put it's wings on a wire brush and have the dog fetch it.

[driggs5454]

i read that if you give them a perscription bottle filled with pebbles to chew on it will cure them after it cracks in their mouth.

[ishawooa]

In the old days when I had not much money and started dogs from pups, an old timer told me to find a pine cone about the size of a gentleman bob. Attach the wings from a quail to the cone. The theory was that if the pup bit down on the "quail" while retrieving the pricks on the pine cone would bite back. Actually I believe this worked for a few of my dogs but then maybe they would have turned out alright anyway.

[sayerbefiddlin]

What I have done in the past is have them fetch balloons some that are full of air and some not. Soon they realize that they can carry the full of air ones if they dont bite down hard. Also its really funny to watch their reaction when they pop. So far I have not seen one that swallows the balloon after its pops. It has only taken one week of that trainning to help. One other thing, you should never play tug of war or such games with a hunting dog. Everytime you let them win they will fight harder for it.

[ETangler]

A childs small plastic football with small wooden dowels all through it.

[FloridaHunter1226]

A decoy with grooves that make it uncomfortable for the dog to bite should do the trick.

[Mike N Karen Holbrook]

My Dad and I use to keep Pigeons for Training our Bird Dogs to fetch Live birds and bring them back unharmed. How do you do that ? First you teach them to use a Soft bite, we used Tennis Balls with Tacks & The feathers taped to it all around it, Tacks facing outwards. The Pups learned quickly to use a soft bite.