brixsmaid

Doorstalker - I agree that perhaps the time is right to call a truce, I never intended to cause any offence with any of my comments and apologise if that is how they came across. All I was doing was pointing out the difficulties (and perhaps the misconceptions) I was experiencing in obtaining some cull stock birds and was simply responding to or perhaps allowed myself to "react to" the threads, I should know better! Anyway I close now and thank all those who participated in the thread, which ever side of the fence they happen to be on. Once again sorry if I have offended anyone, goodbye and regards

Rick You're forgetting that this side of the pond is still very old fashioned if not Victorian, well certainly my salary is and it certainly doesn't run to air freighting them over - nice offer though - more than I've had from this side! Then again for what it would cost I could probably front up to one of the lofts in this country and buy a pair and wouldn't even have to tell them why I wanted them - but I would be condemming them to a life of free flying at their own pace, without the pressure of being stuck in a crate, transhipped here and there and then battling home through all weathers and dodging the odd hawk/Falcon on the way!!

Well I guess I'm not going to establish any contacts for a couple of cull birds through here, its also a pity that the more vociferous of the respondents didn't actually read my message, where I used words like: "non destructive manner: I don't actually harm them, the dogs just learn to push them out from grass/bushes, without physical contact (otherwise the dog has failed) then they fly back to my mini loft. It's basically to teach the dog to find and flush a bird and stop dead when they do. So if I don't hurt them why do I need them………" Just to clarify the point before I fade away into the ether: if during my training a dog even touches a bird or rabbit (yes they are also used) rather than coming to an immediate "sit" then I have failed and its back to square one and start again with retraining the dog. For Bruno: the bird is not trussed in any way, simply "dizzied" ( I can explain - again a non harming/non distressing process) before being placed on the ground. For Doostalker; I am genuine, and I can't think of any professional gundog trainers I have come across when I was last training who didn't have a few pigeons in regular use and surprisingly their birds lived to a ripe old age! Anyway, a pity no one could help with giving a couple of odd birds a good life! Regards

I'm one of those lamenting UK gundog owners/trainers and have been trying for 6 months to source a couple of birds which were going to be culled. I've only ever used my birds in a non destructive manner, i.e. I don't actually harm them, the dogs just learn to push them out from grass/bushes, without physical contact (otherwise the dog has failed) then they fly back to my mini loft. Its basically to teach the dog to find and flush a bird and stop dead when they do. So if I don't hurt them why do I need them - I've been out of training dogs for a good few years, my old stock was sold on, but now I have three new dogs, so I need some new, chaep, failed, cull stock.