Anyone sell their coturnix for bird dog training?

[Swamp Roo]

Monarch: I've always wondered why States fund and support release of pheasants. Again, being more that just a bit hypocritical I'd love to hunt them someday, but truth be told they have no business being here, and I'd have to support an eradication program. But I do agree, Coturnix probably pose little threat. I just could not be part of knowingly releasing yet another exotic.

Swamp

 

[cawooduck]

The coturnix would be a good bird to teach a dog to "hold" or not flush the bird out. I believe Coturnix would be good for training pointers. I am giving a buddy of mine some quail to train his lab to hold, and to get it birdy. All birds have a different smell to them, but its distinguishing between furbearers and birds is the goal. But as far as working a dog in the field to the point, then the flush, i dont think coturnix would be a good choice.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
I'm in 1000% agreement

Besides, I've seen news reports of snakes people have turned loose in the everglades that are now breeding

The thought of a 20' python stalking me??? Shivers**

 

[Swamp Roo]

Yup, python hunting permits are being given out by the state now. You have to photograph, give coordinates, weight, length of each one. There is no way they are going to make much more than a small dent in the population, just too many, and they are really good at saying hidden. I sense a glut of snake skin boots hitting the market any time now. I've seen photos of a 6-8' gator that clawed it's legs back out of the python that ate it. Looked like a snake with legs. Killed the snake, and the gator did not make it back out either. Gators are having to share the apex of the food chain.

WARNING, not pretty:
http://www.poormojo.org/pmjadaily/archives/004896.php

Swamp

 

[jetto]

We use both coturnix and bobs and actually pigeons too for dog training. That's the reason we started keeping birds. We have one dog that is close to his Field Championship and has his Amateur championship and we have 3 other dogs who all have field points and place regularly at AKC events. We do most of the training ourselves with some help from pro's when needed.

In fact we used 5 coturnix yesterday morning for a training session. We do not shoot birds during our training sessions. Our shooting is limited to the little bit of hunting we get to do when it's in season. Mostly we field trial our dogs- no shooting/retrieving required. The dogs don't know the difference and don't care as long as they get to go out and run and find birds. Trialing and training on wild birds would be great for us and the dogs- but in our area that just isn't possible.

Our coturnix yesterday flew pretty good. These were fairly young birds- around 9-10 weeks old. We had an excellent training session- both for our older broke dogs and our young dogs that are still green. We do use remote launchers which definitely help in the flying department.

The coturnix are good for some of the training we do because many times they don't fly real far and they tend to get up and walk around in front of the dogs. In trial situations- this happens alot especially if the birds get wet. So it works out well for us and training. While we prefer using bobs- the coturnix are cheaper.

As far as confusing your pointing dog- a gamebird is a gamebird is a gamebird. If they can scent a bobwhite- they can scent a coturnix. And you will sometimes hit a trial or hunt test that is using coturnix although most trials try hard to get bobwhites. Our dogs rarely get on pheasant because they are no longer found wild around here. But when we go to trials out of our region where there are wild pheasants- they've all known it's a gamebird and they are to point and hold it. Same as with woodcock. Most dogs aren't exposed to those birds unless taken into woodcock areas. But at trials our dogs have no problem knowing that is a gamebird.
We see absolutely no difference in our dogs pointing style or intensity on the coturnix as opposed to the bobwhites. And if we did I'd probably cull the dog, lol...Just kidding....they are all couch potatoes and bed hogs but they do have jobs to do. Kristi

 

[Mrs MIA]

I have to agree... coturnix are useful, but not first choice with most of the hunters up here. In a pinch they will use a launcher to get them in the air, but mostly they use the coturnix to train very young/novice dogs. Not much call for them here from the hunters. Bobs and chukars are much better, and are still ready at 9-10 weeks.