October/November 2004 Now in our thirteenth year. www.Bdarn.com

Pheasant Dog
"'Pheasant Dog!' Deciding What Makes For a Good One and Discovering What Training Techniques Can Make Your Pheasant Dog Even Better"
By Jerry Thoms

Good Pheasant Dog Wanted!
Must have great "desire" to find ringnecks in a wide range of habitat and conditions. Needs to intelligently "quarter" through pheasant cover in a methodical search for birds. Should have real skill in "finding and retrieving" dead roosters.
If your pheasant dog were looking for a job, could he or she get the one described here? Or, are the requirements too specialized and demanding? What are the qualifications for a good pheasant dog? And, if you have a potentially good pheasant finder, how could you make your canine rooster booster even better?
Here are the opinions of three hunting dog magazine editors on the subject of what general qualities are essential for any kind or breed of gun dog used for getting pheasants. And, here are some specific methods used by the top gun dog trainers in the country on how to make your pheasant dog more efficient and effective at putting roosters in your gamebag.

"Desire To Hunt Pheasants"
"Desire to find pheasants in the field is one of the main factors in making for a good pheasant dog," in the thinking of Rick Van Etten, editor of Gun Dog Magazine. "Though the major theme of our magazine centers on how to better train your gun dog, the best-trained dog in the world won't be the best pheasant dog without a burning desire to hunt for these birds in all types of habitat and in all kinds of conditions," Van Etten believes.
"'A dog with aggressiveness' is the way Datus Proper described 'desire' in his book Pheasants of the Mind. And, by aggressiveness, Proper meant a canine's wild enthusiasm to find gamebirds of any kind," Van Etten points out. "On a pheasant hunt, most any dog can go along for a walk and maybe stumble across a rooster now and then. But, a good pheasant-finder is one that is on fire with desire to put ringnecks into the air."
"Enhancing the Desire To Hunt Pheasants"
"You can't 'teach' desire to a pheasant dog. But, you can 'enhance' desire by giving your pointing or flushing dog lots of exposure to ringnecks," according to Jim West, a full-time trainer at Wild West Kennels in Sidney, Iowa. "Every dog owner knows that 'birds make a bird dog,' but not every hunter practices this basic principle," West feels.
"My advise for 'massive exposure' of any dog to gamebirds is to have some training sessions at a hunting preserve using pen-raised, released pheasants," West suggests. "There are commercial preserves located in every state and most operators are open to any customer who would like to buy some pheasants and have them specially put into the field specifically for dog training purposes," West has found.
"Most preserves have lots of birds, good habitat, and a season that typically runs from September 1 to March 31," West says. "And, don't worry about your dog catching tame birds that won't run or fly because most modern day pen-raised ringnecks are genetically produced to be very much like wild birds. Do, however, have control over your dog with a check cord or an e-collar especially as your pointer or flusher quickly develops a burning desire to hunt pheasants," West adds.
"Intelligently Quartering In a Search For Birds"
"Any 'good' pheasant dog should have the inborn ability to intelligently search for any gamebirds by quartering through the field in a methodical, but not mechanical, pattern," in the experi