Where to get birds for dog training?

**hazmat** · 12-10-2002, 02:43 PM

My mom has put ducks and pheasants on her christmas list. She trains her two labs for hunting/retrieving competitions & wants some birds.

Anybody know where I can get some? (other than a covert operation at the Boston duck pond?) They don't have to be live, frozen is actually prefered.

**I_am_the_walrus** · 12-10-2002, 03:39 PM

Post deleted by I_am_the_walrus

**hazmat** · 12-10-2002, 03:44 PM

No Krogers up this way, Plus I think she wants feathers and all. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

**pbenven** · 12-10-2002, 08:24 PM

No game farms your way? We have a local farmer who raises game birds, mostly for meat. He is very happy to sell me birds for training my dogs.

**hazmat** · 12-10-2002, 08:37 PM

The yellow pages turns up empty, every google I do comes up with stuff far away.

My mom's breeder/trainer recommended a place, but it is 90 miles from me. I put a call in, hoping they will ship a couple frozen pheasants.

I guess I'll call agway, maybe they sell grain to somebody in the area.

**pbenven** · 12-10-2002, 08:41 PM

I've got some dog training magazines at home. I'll check if there are any breeders near you.

**hazmat** · 12-10-2002, 08:42 PM

Just called agway. The guy who orders birds isn't in. I know they sell chicks there, didn't know they also sold pheasant & duck. Looks like Santa might literally have to kill for the presents [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

**popeye** · 12-10-2002, 09:42 PM

Find a retriever club in your area or field trial organization. They will know where to get birds in your area. The local newsaper may have the name of a club. Live birds would actually be better for the dogs they should not hurt them. I trained two dogs with live birds the only ones that did not survive was an occasional pidgeon. We usually trained 4 or 5 dogs during a session and ducks always made it through it OK.
If the dog does kill a bird he has a "hard mouth". Wrap a piece of hardware cloth or something similar around the bird and it will usually make him hold softer. Good Luck and the dogs will love it.
Mike
Mike

**Hank** · 12-11-2002, 12:58 AM

<font color="purple"> The guy who orders birds isn't in. I know they sell chicks there, didn't know they also sold pheasant & duck. Looks like Santa might literally have to kill for the presents </font color>

Just checked with our MD dog friends who do bird retrieval training; they obtain baby chicks (ducks and geese mostly, in that part of the country) from breeders who breed just for training, then kill and freeze them. Feathers and all is right...for the training to be effective, the training aids have to be the real thing.

**pbenven** · 12-11-2002, 02:34 AM

Sorry, checked and couldn't find any near you. That 90 miles doesn't sound too bad. Wonder if you could FedEx them or something?

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