Running dog on migrating woodcock

I'm somewhat new to upland hunting with a dog. My current dog, a pointing lab, is my first bird dog, and this past fall was his first hunting season. He has been phenomenal and totally on fire on preserve birds but I was only able to get him to the grouse woods twice, and both times were sort of a bust, partly because I'm in the early stages of the learning process of finding grouse cover, and also because our first day out my dog got skunked in the face, which was a blow to the confidence of both of us. The second we hit rowed crops at a preserve, he knows EXACTLY what he is there to do, and he will burn up every single patch and then some, until I tell him to stop; however, our few times in grouse woods have been different. He will sort of work in and out of "hunt mode," and then sort of bug out and start messing around (i.e., it appears a lot of the time that he doesn't know he's supposed to be hunting). I'll rip off a quiet trill blow on my whistle (a command he knows to start quartering and searching), and he will spend a good few minutes ripping through the woods hunting, and might lock up on a chipmunk, but then he'll stop. I think part of this is the fact that he knows at the preserves, when he starts hunting, he rarely goes longer than 5 mins without first finding a bird, so he may simply be discouraged after even 15 minutes of not finding a bird, and think that we're just not hunting, but I also think part of it is the scene and the fact that we're in completely different cover than rowed crops (I get this idea because when we're not hunting and just out and about, if he sees anything that closely resembles rowed crops, like switch grass or even cattails, he just starts ripping it up and combing through searching).

Now that he really knows what he's doing in rowed crops at preserves, I'd like to get him sharper in the wild grouse and woodcock woods. I want him to get it, and know what we're there to do. I'm aware this takes time, and I've heard that it can take even a good dog several years until they really get it in the grouse woods. I'd like to do all I can in this off season to get him better. I hear a lot of talk about guys running their dogs on flights of migrating woodcock, just for the finds and points, etc. I know there are ups and downs to doing this, I've heard all about that and I don't want this thread to get out of hand with that because IMO at the point I'm at with my dog I think he could mostly benefit from woodcock finds right now even if they are flushed and not shot. So, I'm looking for some advice as to how I can go about getting into some woodcock this late winter and early spring. I think even just one day of luck finding a handful of birds will make a huge difference with how he acts in the grouse woods.

I'm not looking for spots at all, I just would like to know the time frames to focus on (i.e., when their migration back up north usually peaks around here), as well as what types of places (cover) I may have the best luck finding them. Is it worth while to even try downstate where I live (SE Mich), or would my time be better spent trying to get up north?

Thanks in advance.

Wanna kill these ads? We can help!

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Running dog on migrating woodcock