kinderbeano

Thanks Casso. Yeah that's what I've made too and it works a treat. I think you're right, everyone has there own views and ways of doing things. Slowing down the training and staying consistent is what I will focus on for now. I've not pushed the dog hard or hunted him, he's just flushed a few birds while out for walks really and his chasing them had me a little worried. From what I've gathered from the comments it's not something to worry about in a 6 month old pup as its too advanced for him and too early to introduce game. Out of interest does anyone here use bird throwers or dizzied

Thanks for the advise lads. As I've said above this is my 'first' ever gun dog so I'm trying not to mess it up. I'm going to take a step back and focus 100% on the basics. I've started using a 30ft check chord when bringing him for a walk so I can keep control and help get his attention for recall/stop whistle etc. I feel like I need to take him out because he needs exercise too but don't want to let him hunt yet. I'll keep training to the back yard for now and just take things slower. It's easy to get excited with the first dog and try do too much. Think I need to train myself as much as

I've just bought my first gun dog this year and was asking myself similar questions. Our club always shoots over springers as we work a lot of heavy cover but I wanted a dog that was a little steadier and that could make a good family dog too. I went with a Brittany spaniel and so far I am delighted with the breed. Small enough to work cover, loves to please you, easily trained and very versitile. Now I have no experience with driven shoots but I can imagine if you train them to be nice and steady they should be fine. That's just my experience but it might give you some food for th

So I am looking for some help in how to stop my Brittany spaniel chasing flushed birds. He's only 6 months old and is going well with sit, stay, heel, marked retrieves and beginning stop whistle work. He has pointed some pheasants while out walking and I tried him on dizzied pigeons a couple of times too. Every time he chases several hundred yards. I want to stop this behaviour before it becomes an issue. Now I'm new to gun dog training so I've been reading a lot, and I think there seems to be two schools of though on how to stop the dog chasing. 1. Let the dog chase everything until he

Just wondering if anyone else has used decoys and/or callers on flight ponds? Ive used them a good few times and I find the ducks are much more confident coming in and ive even shot at a group and had them swing around a second time when i gave the caller a blast. I cant find much info on it so just wondering if many guys have tried it or find it works for them?

Thats great lads thanks very much. Ive heard mixed stories about people having problems with partridge wandering off. Some seem to never have an issue and some people cant get them to stop fecking off atall. Our ground is pretty quiet so i dont think there will be any disturbance problems, theres also no main road near by. Obviously good returns are what were aiming for but really for our small shoot of 6 people were just hoping for another species on the game list and something interesting to flush every now and again. We really only have one plot of land about 2 acres where we can build

Looking for some advice on raising and releasing red legged partridge. Our gun club (which is all rough walked up shooting) wants to have a go at releasing partridge on some of our ground. The ground is pretty mixed; strips of mature mixed hardwood woods, younger (15-20 year old) beech plantation, patches of rough gorse covered ground and the rest is mostly wheat fields (winter stubble) with good heavy ditches. So my first question is which of these ground types is best suited to partridge?? were looking at getting 50-100 birds for our first try. Whats the best stocking density for p

ill make scrambled eggs with goats milk and cod liver oil..cooking the milk helps them to digest it better.gives a good boost of calcium and omega 3.

ill cut out a section of left over carpet and put in on the floor of sleeping part of the hutch and put in a small amount of dust extracted shavings or the hey in the pet shops,it shouldnt have any bugs in it and they seem to love it, make a proper nest out of the stuff.

yeah, line breeding will only be worth it if u give every ferret a chance to show its working ability and then pick the best for breeding If you just pick the kits you want at 6 weeks old then you could be picking the one that works least like the parents .if you do it tho id say breed mother-son or father-daughter and you should breed to a totally unrelated individual every second generation to avoid genetic illnesses/weaknesses. keeping a detailed log book would be important to keep track of all the matings and to help decide which ferrets would be best to breed from. To do it properly ud

u can get 16ft MK3 box and collar brand new for about 190 euro..used box in good nick i suppose around 160-170 euro.

Im not going to claim to be an expert on this by any means, but i am studying zoology and genetics in uni and From what iv studied ur safest way to ''inbreed'' for certain traits is to breed mother-son or father-daughter and every 2nd generation or so bring in some outside blood to keep some variety in the gene pool.Brothers and sisters can tend to be too similar in genetics, but for one breeding generation you should be fine. As has been said before the only reason we have such variety in domestic breeds today is because of generations of well managed inbreeding (with occasional outbreeding)

I am looking for a hob to cover one of my jills this year for breeding. Is there anyone in Ireland (preferably the south east) who has a good working strain and that would be willing to let me use a hob for breeding. No preference on colour, just good healthy working ferret. Small would be best. (all my ferreting contacts have gotten out of the sport so i'm a bit stuck) Regards, Conor.

not to change the subject but what weights do ye consider to be big/very big ferrets?

iv seen those before..never caused a problem for mine,seem to go away after a while..a dose of ivormectin or something from the vet would do no harm anyway,its not that expensive.