by Chuck Johnson
Tiger Woods is the dominant PGA touring pro golfer. As any of the pro golfers and they will tell you that Tiger spends more time on the practice tee than any other pro. The same principle holds true in training pointing dogs. If you want to have an outstanding bird dog, you have to make sure that he gets a lot of actual live bird contact.
Your dog will be working wild birds during the hunting season, but most seasons last for only two or three months in the fall. You can extend your season by visiting your local shooting preserve during the winter, but most preserve seasons end in March or April. That leaves the crucial summer months without a wild bird or preserve season. These are the very months when it is most important to be working your dog on birds.
There is an economical solution to the problem. Most states have a dog-training season that will allow you to release and shoot birds during a training session. Check with your state fish and game department for the regulations; as a rule, the state will require you to have a license or permit that will allow you to train your dog on birds. Normally, they’ll require you to have a designated grounds or area where you intend to train; in many states, they will allow you to train on state land. If you have enough land or know someone who does, you are in good shape.
So in locating a place to train, how about checking with the farm or ranch where you have permission to hunt? NAVHDA – North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association – can be a big help in your search for training grounds. Check with NAVHDA, and find out the nearest chapter that is active in training. As a member, you can train with them and probably use their training grounds.
Another good source is the National Shoot-to-Retrieve Association. They have a number of local bird dog clubs that run trails, and you can bet that the members who actively run their dogs are constantly training. Again, check with your state fish and game department or the outdoor editor of you local newspaper for nearby clubs.
Whether you train with a club or do it yourself on state game land or private land, you still need birds, and quail fit the bill perfectly. A combination quail living quarters and callback pen is often referred to as a Johnny house and is an economical way to keep quail for training purposes. You can build one in less than a day with minimal tools and for very little money.
A small quail pen holding up to 24 birds is 4’ x 4’ x 6’ high. The bottom part is made of 3/4-inch exterior plywood. Above the plywood is a screened area made of ˝-ince hardware cloth. There is a shelf around the top of the plywood where the birds can sit and sun themselves. One side of the top has a 24” x 24” door that opens out, enabling you to reach in and catch quail. You can also open the door and let a few fly out.
The top of the pen is covered with galvanized steel. The roof is built on a slant so water and snow will slide off, and the bottom of the pen is a frame covered with ˝-ince galvanized wire to allow bird droppings to fall through. The wire also helps prevent predators from digging in and getting at your birds.
The front side of the house has a small trap door that can be cropped down to use in recalling birds to the pen. When the door is open, the birds can re-enter through a tapered cone, a foot-long funnel attached to the front wall and made from the same wire mesh that is used for the floor. The cone has a fine-inch outside opening while the other opening inside the pen is only three inches in diameter. The smaller opening is to deter the quail from trying to escape. The end of the funnel inside the pen should be slanted up at lease 12 inches from the floor. You can this opening to be above the head of the birds. If the birds can see the opening, they will try to escape. I like to cut a piece of plywood about 30” x 36” high and attach is on a slant against the side wall away from the cone opening. This shelter allows the quail to get behind it and use this area to hide and to roost during the night.
I have kept quail alive and healthy through a Montana winter where the temperatures often drop to 20 below zero during the night. The quail pen protects the birds from the wind and snow and keeps their food dry. As long as you have enough quail to form a tight covey, normally eight to 10 birds, they can generate enough heat to survive.
I put a large door on the back of the pen. This door allows me to reach in and refill their feeder, water container, and grit pan. I also use this opening to catch quail.
I located by Johnny house in my backyard – eight acres that I leave in native prairie grass. It’s there that I start all of my young puppies on birds.
After the birds have been in the pen for several weeks, you can release some of them. Make sure that you keep at lease one male in the pen, although I prefer to keep two or three. The penned males will call the release birds back to the pen. I leave the trap door open and put some quail feed on the open door leading into the cone. The released quail will head back to the pen and enter through the door. In the morning, I close the door to make sure they do not get back out.
You will need a plastic waterer, a grit pan, and a steel feeder for you Johnny house. I find that I need to check the pen, rill the feeder and give them fresh water on a weekly basis. However, during the heat of the summer, I give them fresh water twice a week and new grit every other week. I also find a small hand-held fishing net handy to catch quail.
Now you are ready to order birds. Almost every state has a number of gamebird breeders. In order to raise gamebirds commercially, you need a state license; so when you contact your fish and game department for information on training with birds, ask them to provide you with a list of breeders. Most are members of the North American Game Bird Association. They have an excellent website that lists all of their members by state. You can also contact any of the field trial organizations in your area – you can’t run a field trial, Shoot-to-Retrieve, or NAVHDA test without gamebirds.
Most bird breeders have all of the business they can handle, and they only raise a certain number of birds each year. It pays to contact them early and reserve your birds in advance. This spring, I ordered 25 quail for late-August delivery. I knew that I was going to have a litter of puppies and would need quail for them and my older dogs.
Quail are very reasonable in price. I am currently paying $5.50 a bird, plus shipping. Shipping on 25 birds runs less than $10. My breeder ships his birds via the post office, and you’ll get your birds in one or two days. I have never lost a bird this way. You will want to check with your post office in advance to let them know when you are expecting a shipment of live birds.
I feed my quail Purina Game Bird Flight Conditioner. It comes in a 50-lb bag and costs $9.50. The grit also comes in a 5-lb bag and costs $7.25.
You can build your Johnny house and buy all of the equipment for around $250. I built my house 10 years ago, and it is still in good condition. During the spring and summer when I’m working young dogs, I will often use 50 to 100 quail. Let’s compare the costs with sending your dog to a professional trainer. A good pro will charge you $500 a month and up, and they are worth every penny. For the same amount of money, you can work your dogs on over 100 birds a year. I am not suggesting that you should not use a pro; however, if you have the time and enjoy training your bird dog, you can do it at a very reasonable cost.
Now you have a quail house and a supply of birds on your own yard that you can use for training. If your property is too small to train on, you can still keep the Johnny house there. If you must train elsewhere, buy a portable quail callback pen. These are made of steel mesh and are about 15” x 30” x 8” with a cone that lets quail back in the pen. You can use this pen to transport your birds to the training area.
If you want to recapture your birds after training, make sure that you leave a male call bird in the pen. The birds will usually start to come back to the pen several hours after the training sessions ends.
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