Thursday 17 October 2013

Bird!

As a GSP, Mawson is supposedly a bird hunting dog (small furries could count too I suppose, but mainly birds). However, he seems to have developed a pickiness about which birds he chooses to point at.
Magpies were once his favourites, but they have (nearly) completely gone out of favour. So much so that he sometimes doesn't even turn his head for them, even if they are at less than a metre away! Smaller birds like the mynahs are touch and go, depending on the mood and the noisiness of the little pests. That's on the big birds that he gets most of his kicks. The sulfur crested cockatoos are interesting but they can be in big bunches, so they are sometimes a bit freaky. His favourite of all times (for the moment!) are galahs, and they usually come in pairs. I know that if I see galahs on the way, we will be stuck there for a good few minutes. He is getting better mind you, I can now tell him when to turn it on and point or continue walking veeeery slowly. When he was younger, he was literally glued to the spot he saw them first. No moving the puppy, I once had to carry him away for a few metres...

the culprit Galah (not my pic though!)

It makes a lot of people stop to look at him and laugh, when I let him go on a bit of a point. I guess if there was enough time I could develop and train that trait better, but if there is anything furry that passes around, he gets real silly and becomes a real crap hunter.

What also makes me laugh is that, when we are at training, he is sometimes the only bird hunting dog there, and couldn't care less about the birds, whereas all of the other dogs go crazy about them and chase them at full speed... Go figure! Guess they are mainly ballsy magpies.

Galah... that way... (not the best point but hey...)


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