I could understand a quick walk, but running after your dog with a loaded weapon potentially in a group of people on uneven terrain...Ill pass.

If you are running after your dog because it is chasing a bird and you cant stop him, thats a training issue. Your dog is hunting for himself and he doesnt care where the gun is.

Ive been in ND, SD, and IA in December/January in below zero temps with not much cover left for many years. The name of that game isnt to see who makes the most racket chasing a bird. Its a game of "lets see how quiet we can be" and getting the jump on the birds before they run. And if they do, Im not going to blow the rest of the slough out the far side because I want to run after one bird that I dont even know is a rooster.

Im not saying my pup wont break every now and again, but I will not reward that behavior by chasing her and shooting a bird for her to retrieve.

I'm definitely NOT talking about running at all. A speed walk or the occassional slow jog is all. That is if and only if the dog is hot on a tail of a running rooster. This is only done when hunting alone. With mutiple hunters/dogs, you take away the ability of the pheasant to run around you (hopefully). Those of us with pointing dogs have dogs that do work out of gun range. Thats the biggest advantage to them, they are able to cover ground you can't. Working late season wiley roosters alone with the dog, I do change my style of hunting dramatically compared to hunting with a group of people. On public land, those birds rarely sit tight. They often bust 200 yards ahead, or do the road runner routine. I can tell when my dog is working a running bird, and instead of going slow and letting that bird escape (its not easy to corner a bird on a WMA cattail slew thats 40+ acres) we work on getting close enough to him where he is trapped between us. Walking slow, this bird will just run around us. QUIET is a key as well. If you can at least get somewhat close to start with, half the game is already won.

I got a dog from the same litter as fishroger and mnpurple. I will call her back and make her work more slowly if she is trying to run a bird down. I won't run or jog after her and more often than not she will pick up the trail again and eventually get the bird up. If we don't get it up, so be it. I like watching her work the field and she needs to hunt at my speed and not hers.

She has tons of drive and sometimes its very hard for me to call her off the bird if the trail is hot. When I first began to work with her in the field I worked with a 30 to 50 foot check cord and as she began to take off, just before she hit the end of the cord I would give her the command to slow down. It took a few times of her hitting the end of the cord and getting corrected for her to figure it out, but 9 times out of 10 now when I tell her to slow down she will stop and wait for me to get there. Or she will loop back around and begin working back towards me. If the trail is hot, she won't move until I get caught up, and will begin working the same scent.

I'm not saying that is the correct way to train your dog, but it did work for me. I'm glad I put so much work into that command early on, because this dog does not respond to nicks, beeps, vibrations or otherwise if she is hot on something. It may be poor collar conditioning on my part, but she is in another world at times and I can give her the full correction with the collar and can see her body lurch from it, but she keeps going. It will turn her eventually, but for only being a 60 lb dog, you'd think she'd respond more quickly to such a harsh correction.

Time for a pointer of some kind....they stop and wait for you ...it's amazing! Jk .. That pressing hard towards the bird thing is what a flusher is bread to do that's what drives the bird up if you call them back I feel you have a chance that they may loose the trail. So sometimes you just gotta keep up........or buy a pointer!

Run with the dog. As for the pointer i disagree. I have been hunting with several pointers and they RUN and man they run. They ended up flushing all the birds out 300 yard ahead of me and never ended up point. they just kept pushing the birds.... Do not get a pointer.....

pointers do the same thing when they are on a strong track they run to the bird.

You have ODVIOUSLY NEVER hunted behind a steady a pointer. THEY DO NOT CHASE BIRDS, IF THEY DID THEN THEY WOULD BE CALLED FLUSHING DOGS. A trained pointer locks up at first scent and stays there until it is released by the handler.

If a bird is running the dog is going to follow. My problem with the pointer is it gets on one scent and keeps going thus while chasing that scent it surpasses all the other birds way ahead while chasing that one scent...

I have a flusher and he points if he knows the birds there but can't see it. Even on a hot trail he will double back and check to see where I am. Very rarely will he run off more than 50 ft...

And also do not take this in offense. I was just stating my opinion and personal experiences when hunting with English pointers and German short hairs. To each their own. I was brought up with labs and will continue to use them.

I will say though a flusher and a pointer do work well together. Seems one finds a bird the other one missed!

2thepointsetters is right on the money. If you have hunted behind pointers that chase the birds, they need more training or just don't have IT. I hunted behind a Gordon for years that never once chased a bird. I saw him point a bird that was actually right under him and he had to point under his belly [that was pretty cool ] Got a nice rooster up that bumped him when it flushed! A good pointer is an unbelievable hunting machine. Having said that I now have a lab, as I hunt ducks now and then. But in my opinion a good pointer will get you more upland game than a flusher every time.

just got back from the dakotas chasin birds with a pointer and my lab , a so called flusher. This situation came up. We took the pointer and my lab out with 3 shooters. The pointer was ranging pretty far out and my lab was following a scent along a fenceline. The pointer went right past the flusher (my dog) and kept on going. Long story short, my flusher cornered a bird and pointed it with the pointer several hundred yards away. Another question? We had trouble in the tall grass losing sight of the pointer. Grass was chest high. The flusher was visible pretty much all the time. What is peoples opinions when there is heavy cover. It fun seeing the pointer point, but if you cant see the pointer?

Running with a loaded gun in cover is a recipe for disaster.


A flusher will do the same thing. In either case you need to be able to stop the dog. And then catch up to it and then release it again.


The opposite also happens. The flusher misses a bird and the pointer finds it.


A beeper or bell can help with this. If the grass is chest high how can you see the flusher? Are you hunting with a Great Dane? Any dog can work in heavy cover. I run a pointer and tend to stay in cover where I can see my dog work. I will go into heavy cover if need be. It's less fun but no less effective with a pointer.

Folks, there are alot of variables and preferences as well as dogs with varying levels of ability and training.
There are several ways to solve the problem of running birds.

you say any dog can work heavy cover. I doubt that. Smaller dogs have trouble. By the way I said my dog was a lab. If there staying close its easy to see them. If a pointer is out there a ways its difficult if there pointing and theres no movement.

My brittany is right around 40 pounds, and he works great in heavy cover. I actually think it is an advantage working late season cattails, he is small enough that he doesn't get hung up in the thick cover. There is the issue of not being able to see him in the thick and tall cover. He always wears and orange vest while hunting pheasants which helps with the problem. Unless it is really windy, I actually just listen for him. When it is really windy, he wears a small bell. He worked great yesterday, got one bird on public land. Perfect point.

My shorthair weighs 38 pounds in hunting condition and works heavy cover as well as any dog I've ever seen. The big dog for heavy cover line of thought is a myth.

I'll agree to disagree. I'll take my pointer/flusher. You take your pointer. End of debate.