Thread: Pointer and Setter Trials

Originally Posted by Toby

I thought a pheasant dog pointing a rabbit is bad?

Nothing wrong with pointing dog working rabbit as long as they do everything right.... As I always say, you go out to hunt if a dog does what they should do properly I would shoot one for them, and for the freezer...

I am not sure tho how the scoring on trials goes for rabbits, my understanding is that they won't penalize you for properly worked rabbit by a pointing dog, but they won't reward you for it either. If they chase and bark then you get thrown out...
End of the day you are there to hunt birds, and the scoring is done on bird with the PnS trials, if there is no work done on a bird then they can't score you for a being a bird dog

Originally Posted by Petros_mk

Nothing wrong with pointing dog working rabbit as long as they do everything right.... As I always say, you go out to hunt if a dog does what they should do properly I would shoot one for them, and for the freezer...

I am not sure tho how the scoring on trials goes for rabbits, my understanding is that they won't penalize you for properly worked rabbit by a pointing dog, but they won't reward you for it either. If they chase and bark then you get thrown out...
End of the day you are there to hunt birds, and the scoring is done on bird with the PnS trials, if there is no work done on a bird then they can't score you for a being a bird dog

Your are right in saying if they do it right there is no problem but it is hard to keep a dog controlled well with the bunnies in a trial . I think if your trialing it is best to let your dogs know Rabbits are not what you want -I chastise my dog for getting on to them but each to his own on what they want in there dog.A further thought , you probably want your dog doing the basics correctly first also before allowing any Rabbiting to go on also other wise I really think it would be detrimental to faster learning for the dog