Bird Placement

[Jeff Huntington]

A punch list is really not what you are looking for because then what you will have is a cheat sheet of what to you are really cool things and then you will tend to go around looking for a place to plug them in. Great bird placement some people just seem to have the eye and the knack for it, but you can bet that it came from experience. Good bird placement you learn maybe on your way to great bird placement by running and observing, judging, running and making mistakes, and most of all judging and running and training with people who are a lot better than you and observing and asking questions. Experience is the teacher and to be really good there is no shortcut.

Well David thanks for adding to my thread. By the way people learn in different manners

If I was as knowledgeable as you won't have to ask questions

[MooseGooser]

I saw a long mark thrown once that several dogs ran.. it was thrown out of cover, and onto bare ground.. Very few dogs would hunt the dirt.

[Angie B]

WOW Angie!

I could train on this all the time (and do) but would never say that my dogs could get #3. For starters, the order is not friendly for #3 with #1 first and then the swing towards the flier from #2 to #4. #3 would be the most poorly watched bird. To get #3, the dog goes out of sight and then starts to roll and climb a hill. What an easy over-run. I think this is a good but tough test that I would say my dogs are capable of doing but never that they would on any given day.

Personally, I like #1 retired. If you keep a visible gun exposed just past a shorter retired, you are really trying to deceive the dog into running longer for the visible. It can really be too much and I'd rather seek good bird placement than trying to deceive the dog. I know we see it all the time- that doesn't make it a good marking test, only one that you need to work on.

I agree with what you said about momma-poppas.

Which mark was the flier?? I don't have that information.

Yes I like to see dogs deceived by having a white coat set out deep of a short retired mark,, seems to happen all the time in field trials and hunt tests have their own version of the concept..

Don't get me started on hen pheasants,,, but I am cool with those and have a pen full of them even though my dogs never see them at a hunt test or at the MN. They teach amazing marking when formatted properly.

Angie

[Labs a mundo]

Whenever I get the opportunity to train on birds thrown onto islands I take advantage.
Can't get enough of them in training.

[Buzz]

Which mark was the flier?? I don't have that information.

Yes I like to see dogs deceived by having a white coat set out deep of a short retired mark,, seems to happen all the time in field trials and hunt tests have their own version of the concept..

Don't get me started on hen pheasants,,, but I am cool with those and have a pen full of them even though my dogs never see them at a hunt test or at the MN. They teach amazing marking when formatted properly.

Angie

I would have labeled the flyer but I thought it was obvious that it was bird #4.

[Angie B]

I would have labeled the flyer but I thought it was obvious that it was bird #4.

Evidently not to me... Half the flyers I see are out of order.

Angie

[Kelly Greenwood]

I would have thought Angie would have noticed that there is only one station with at least two white coats (#4) and that it is a huge huge throw for a dead bird.

I do think Barrier birds are a hard concept at times, and subtle angled cover is great at gently pushing dog up wind of mark.

[Brad B]

I was taught that good bird placement is putting the bird where a dog wouldn't naturally/normally want to go. And I'll say that experience is the best teacher of that not necessarily having a set list of things. Watch as many dogs as you can run anywhere and sketch the setup and not where they went. Over time you'll learn patterns that will guide you as to what good placement is.

[fishduck]

Good bird placement is intimately related to terrain, wind and gun station interactions. Change any one of these and a well placed mark becomes a give away. All of the examples listed are great concepts to train. Simply picking one will get you started but to really place a bird all factors have to be considered.

The simplest way to learn is to train with someone better than yourself and pick their brain during set up. This is the fast track and will get results quickly. Experience is the key.

When I first started, James Spencer's book gave me a big head start on mark placement. Before reading it, I simply threw lots of marks with little regard to anything but the wind. Now 6 years later I am beginning to truly understand how little I actually know.

Keep working at it and you will improve.
Mark Land

[Buzz]

Good bird placement is intimately related to terrain.


Mark Land

After I judged a derby & a qual last spring I was talking to Amy Hunt. She said that she thought that we had great bird placement all weekend. She said that when she looks at a field to try and determine where the dogs will naturally go, she tries to picture herself going out for a stroll in it and asks herself, where would I end up going.