Pigeons Loft

Many people accidentally create fear of gun fire in their hunting dogs by rushing their dog into exposure before they are ready. I have heard many horror stories of people who assume a puppy should be genetically programmed to like gun fire. They will shoot a shot gun over their puppy and then are surprised and disappointed when the pup startles and develops fear.

Introducing your dog to gun fire should come only after you have developed a great excitement and desire for a retrieve. Use a helper to throw marks for your dog out in a mowed field. Have them get your dog's attention with their movements and their voice at first. I always use a high and excited voice to yell "Hey, Hey Pup!" as I am twirling a training bumper around and waving my arms.

When the dog's handler calls for me to throw the bumper, I watch the dog carefully even as I am continuing with my movements and voice to make sure he is going to see the object go up in the air and then fall. The handler should restrain the dog until the bumper is high in the air at the top of the arc of the throw. Release the dog while saying his name in an excited way.

After a few days or weeks of creating excitement in the puppy or dog for the retrieve, I begin to not only use voice, but add in a duck call after the voice in getting the dog to look out at me for the retrieve. After a session or two with the duck call, I go to a field near a freeway. The noise of the freeway will mute the sound of the starter pistol I am going to use to introduce gun fire to the dog. Now I use voice to get the dog's attention and substitute the pop of the starter pistol for the duck call. I make sure that I am at least 50 yards away from the dog when I shoot the pistol.

After I have introduced the noise of the starter pistol near the freeway, I will move to a quieter field where the noise of the pistol will be more pronounced. After that is going well, I will introduce a much louder sound of a shotgun at a distance.

To introduce the dog to being shot over, I will plant some shackled birds in a field. When the dog finds a bird, it will fly up a few feet but the weight of the shackles will bring it down again. (Trained homing Pigeons Loft as well.) When the dog thrills to the bird flying up, I shoot a starter pistol so that he begins to associate a loud noise with birds flushing.

Finally, I will plant birds and shoot a shotgun over the dog. By taking it step by step and developing the dog slowly and surely, my dog will not only not be fearful, but actually be excited about the sound of gun fire.

One of the things I was told early on in my racing pigeon career was that prevention is better than cure, particularly when it comes to sickness in young birds.

Treating young birds once they have an illness is quite difficult because you have to make sure the disease doesn't spread and to do that you either have to quarantine those that are ill or treat the whole team because it is difficult to know which Pigeons Loft
- Keep the loft clean and dry
-Avoid stress on the Pigeons

And do all the other good things with the food and water and hopefully you'll have a sickness free year but one other thing to try which i have now done for the past 5 years is to treat the water when all of the first round youngsters are out of the nest.

Repeat the process when the second round youngsters join the initial batch as well. There are many products to use to treat them with so make sure you understand what it is you are trying to prevent, but don't wait until the problem happens.

I don't know whether i have just been lucky in the past 5 years because prior to my preventative strategy my young birds always seemed to contract one sort of illness or another, but since I started with the idea of early treating of the water, I have had no problems and my success rate with the young birds has increased dramatically.

My son John always was interested in Pigeons Loft with an outside run so the birds could have a small area outside so they could see the sky.

Of course human nature took it's course and the two pairs have had some beautiful babies. Naturally, he let these babies out of the pigeon racing.

I am sure you can understand the joy we felt, when, outside the pigeon racing, we all enjoy these moments.

Good fortune to all and great pigeon racing for the upcoming season

John Morton Vancouver British Columbia.

I have experimented over the years with different types of nesting material and I have finally settled on simple twigs which can be purchased from local pigeon racing suppliers.

I like to put the twigs in a clean area in the loft or outside as long as it's dry, and to let the birds collect their own and build their own nests. This way the birds make a full contribution and feel happier that they have built their nest in their way.

Some people simply place the twigs into the nest bowl but I don't think the birds are entirely happy unless they have worked and achieved the results they want. If you don't buy the twigs and put them in the loft, you will find that the Pigeons Loft.

Don't clean the nest bowls until the young have been weaned because the build up of twigs and droppings makes for excellent insulation providing warmth and comfort for the young squabs.

If any of your birds are still unhappy with the baskets or seem unhealthy then do not risk flying them. It is better to be sure that your Pigeons Loft, just to get them used to being basketed and released. From here they can start to be trained further afield. Their first proper training release should be done at around 5km from the loft and should go as follows:

It should take place mid morning to give them plenty of time to return home before nightfall. Fed half their normal rations and given no morning exercise. By limiting the amount of food they eat you will increase their desire to get home. Weather should be clear with a light wind and minimal cloud cover. At the liberation point remove the basket from your car and put it on the floor. Leave it for around fifteen minutes to let your Pigeons Loft the racing Pigeons Loft in good time; at this point increase the liberation distance by 10km. When they are returning in good time from this new distance then add another 10km and so on and so forth. When the racing pigeon racing Pigeons to fly in the sun. If they are going to meet all sorts of weather in a race situation then I feel they should have at least seen something similar to it before when training!