05/07/2018
Falconry isn’t just about working with birds of prey, as a successful falconer you will require a companion.
At lavenham falconry we have two pointers, Douglas is our youngest German short haired pointer who is still in training at this time.
A good dog needs to be skilled in searching and finding scents from a variety of animals when hunting in the field from rabbits, hares to game birds and to quarter the fields, hunting in ditches as well as able to pick up scents around water.
The dogs that work with birds of prey need to be trained to a higher standard than a typical gun dog.
Fact File-
1) To train a pointer normally starts at 13 weeks old teaching a dog to hold a point.
2) Dependong on the bird of prey you fly you work the dog slightly different but a well training pointer will adjust his working pattern and skills when working with shortwings or longwings.
3) Depending on the quarry your pointer is hunting his posture will be different when he points and you will learn to read what he has found from his point.
4) You will need to teach him/ her to walk to heel, recall, left, right, stop, get on & seek and these commands will need to be vocal commands as well as whistle commands.
5) left and right commands are also taught using hand commands.
6) The pointer is also taught to follow on and mark your bird of prey when it’s caught quarry and stand guard while on the ground incase of foxes or other predators.
7) Pointers only find scents, point and flush on command they do not chase the quarry and do not catch.
8) TO be successful in the field and in the sport of falconry you require a very well trained dog.
