Bird Dog Training?

[vmaxfrank]

Any advice on bird dog training? I've never trained a hunting dog before and could use any advice possible. I'm in the Denver area so most training would be backyard or park type stuff. Anyone ever take their dogs to trainers around Denver? How old are should they be, how much, how long to leave them, etc?

If you like cute dogs check out the pics. She is a 10 week old German Shorthair. I guess my wife has a warped sense of humor. She wants to name her Cheney.

 

[summitone]

Nice looking pooch!

I also have a question. What is the easiest dog to train? I gettin me a bird dog.

 

[Spaarky]

If you have never done any training before, I might suggest finding a good trainer to take the pup too. It can be VERY helpful.

The biggest suggestion I have is spend every second possible training or spending time with the dog. The more time you spend, the better they will be.

If you are going to hunt the dog, obediance training first. Then work on the hunting training. We started with our dogs the minute they came home.

 

[Spaarky]

Nice looking pooch!

I also have a question. What is the easiest dog to train? I gettin me a bird dog.

IMO, depends on what you want. We are a lab family. As a flusher/retirever, I think they are very easy to train. This also depends on how far you want to go with the retriever portion of it. We do not have field trial dogs... so I dont get real in depth with the retireving.

I have a buddy that has (4) Setters, English, Llwyellen, Gordon, and Irish. He spends a ton of time with them on the pointing. He buys Chuckars and works with them all the time.

IMO there is only one dog I would shy away from and that is a Chesapeke Bay Retriever. You can hit them over the head with a 4x4 and they still wont listen... All of them I have seen are extremely stubborn.

 

[summitone]

IMO, depends on what you want. We are a lab family. As a flusher/retirever, I think they are very easy to train. This also depends on how far you want to go with the retriever portion of it. We do not have field trial dogs... so I dont get real in depth with the retireving.

I have a buddy that has (4) Setters, English, Llwyellen, Gordon, and Irish. He spends a ton of time with them on the pointing. He buys Chuckars and works with them all the time.

IMO there is only one dog I would shy away from and that is a Chesapeke Bay Retriever. You can hit them over the head with a 4x4 and they still wont listen... All of them I have seen are extremely stubborn.

Got a 2-3 yr old lab for sale? A trained one, of course!

 

[Spaarky]

Got a 2-3 yr old lab for sale? A trained one, of course!

no, but trained lab pups are pretty easy to find. We have a guy in town that is awesome with labs.

 

[brushwolf]

Pick up a good book that is German Shorthair specific and read it.

All interaction with the pup is training whether it be play, stopping face licking, jumping up or even feeding. I would start all dogs by teaching them that everyone is allowed to touch their food and any aggressiveness about it is not tolerated. Come, sit, woah are commands should be taught. Heeling and quartering is important. All of this can be dione before actual field training.

One thing that has worked for me in exposing the dog to load noises and before the gun: Get a .22 calibre starter pistol and use it to condition the dog. What I have done is to let the dog play in the yard and when the dog's attention is not on you and he is in the far corner of the yard then I fire the pistol behind my back to help muffle the sound somewhat. Usually the dog will then look your way to see what the noise is. This is when I hold out a treat for the dog (mine love a slice of cheese)and usually his response is to come running to me to get his treat. When you do this enough times that you know he is not afraid of the noise then start firing it in front of you. What transpires is that the dog soon starts to associate the loud noise with good things like a treat and later a bird. Only do this when the dogs attention is not on you and not in your general direction. Note: Watch the dogs respose and if you get even a slight indication that he is afraid of the noise you should discontinue it immediately and seek professional help before the dog is made to be gun shy.

When you get to the point that the dog is ready for actual hunting there is no substitute for putting the dog on as many live birds as you possibly can.

 

[sleddinhusker]

Game dog by Rich Wolters

Order the book "Game Dog" by Rich Wolters. That is how I learned to train all my bird dogs. Read it, learn it, apply it. The best piece of literature I have ever read.

 

[tmk50]

My old roomate field trials dogs and has had both English and German pointers. I've never gone to a field trial with him, but we hunt wild birds at least once each fall. I like the german shorthairs way better than the english pointers for the types of hunting that we do.

I'll shoot you a PM with his contact information, he knows some trainers around town and can probably give you a bunch of tips. One thing that I know he does with puppies is to freeze dead birds (usually quail) for training. That helps teach them not to bite down hard on the bird.

 

[decarls]

just got home sunday from a week long trip to montana. get home and hear barking... wtf? the wife decided we needed a 8 week old weimaraner! kinda looking forward to working with her and hunting her some but after having labs my whole life i'm afraid this hyper thing is going to drive me to the bottle.

 

[mtn_extreme]

I raise pointers and I wouldn't start a pointer on birds until at least 6 months old. Your time is much better spent bonding with your dog and simple obedience training. The dog will work much better for you if he loves you and wants to please you.

 

[vmaxfrank]

I raise pointers and I wouldn't start a pointer on birds until at least 6 months old. Your time is much better spent bonding with your dog and simple obedience training. The dog will work much better for you if he loves you and wants to please you.

That's what I figured out, I think. I had someone tell me 10 weeks was on the outside time to get a pup. Turns out they meant for bonding, etc. Cheney is doing fine. We are just trying to let her know she is loved and will be a good family member. I am making it a point to be gentle with her corrections as she seems very willing to please.

In a short 2 days she is learning off (off the couch) and can walk on a leash. She is even starting to learn her name. I couldn't ask for more, except I will be glad when housetraining takes hold. I figure if I can teach her the come (don't know whether to use come or here) and whoa, all the hunting stuff will work out.

I found a guy at work that has a wirehair and we figure a few trips to a pheasant preserve - I call it a put and take hunt, would be better money than a professional trainer as I am looking for a pet first and a hunter second.

I will read all the books suggested and the frozen bird idea is great. I think I want some videos as well, just because. Do you also realize Sportsman's Warehouse sells pheasant wings? Wish I would have saved some from this season.

Thanks for all the advice from everyone.

 

[vmaxfrank]

I also have a question. What is the easiest dog to train? I gettin me a bird dog.

I'm not sure. Try your local library on some books. Mine was chock full of them. I grew up with Brittanies, Pointers, and English Setters. Which are strictly game bird dogs. The Continental breeds (German Shorthair, Wirehair, Visla (sp?), and Weimeriner) are more combination pointer and retriever and can be used for waterfowl as well.

Labs, setters, and goldens I think are flushing dogs and don't point. I prefer pointers.

We had one Brittany from field trial stock that was a great house dog and obedience trained, but he flunked out of bird school. He had no interest in birds. He would rather play with the trainers kids. On the other hand, my grandfather had pointer mixes (mixed with what, we never knew) that would hunt anything, quail, squirrels, rabbit, etc. (He encouraged that in his dogs.)

 

[RMK7SledHead]

I found a guy at work that has a wirehair and we figure a few trips to a pheasant preserve - I call it a put and take hunt, would be better money than a professional trainer as I am looking for a pet first and a hunter second.

I completely disagree. Unless it's a very good "preserve" with hundreds if not thousands of acres, and the birds are basically wild (not set minutes or hours before you show up...needs to be days to weeks), the dogs quickly learn where the birds will be and how to get on them. Absolutely NOTHING like wild birds.

 

[IDAHDOO]

We are going to have some " bird dogs" available soon.

 

[Spaarky]

I completely disagree. Unless it's a very good "preserve" with hundreds if not thousands of acres, and the birds are basically wild (not set minutes or hours before you show up...needs to be days to weeks), the dogs quickly learn where the birds will be and how to get on them. Absolutely NOTHING like wild birds.

Obvisouly nothing like wild birds, but the pup needs to start somewhere. My buddy started all his pointers(4 in his kennel right now) on Chuckars. They were handset minutes before. They need to work on finding the birds and pointing. Also honoring points. His dogs are all money, when it comes to pheasant hunting now.

IMO, the more birds you put in front of them, the faster they learn. In a wild situation, they may not find a bird all day. My best dogs have been the ones that hunted everyday and had experience with all kinds of situations. I think the preserve is a good place to start. The more "real world" hunting they get down the road the better though.

 

[brushwolf]

What He said......

 

[Bubba700]

IMO there is only one dog I would shy away from and that is a Chesapeke Bay Retriever. You can hit them over the head with a 4x4 and they still wont listen... All of them I have seen are extremely stubborn.[/QUOTE]

I would disagree with you on this one. Chessies are just different. You cant train them the same as other retrievers. Labs live to please. Chessies go more off of rules that you train them on and if you try to get them to go against those rules then yea they are stubborn. We have a 2 yr old right now that everyone I hunt with swear is one of the quickest learning dogs they have ever seen.

Best advice I would give is get a book Gun Dog or Water Dog. Don't recall the author but it starts out at the how to pick a pup and takes it step by step through the training process. And you can't start them to early. We hunted our chessie with some other dogs before she was even 4mo and she did about a 20 yard water retrieve her first time out. by the time she was 6 mo she had over 150 water retrieves that were as far as 100 yards. Start training the day you get them home. 3 ten min periods a day is all it takes. and be consisitent we your dog. Thats the big key.

 

[Spaarky]

Chessies are just different. You cant train them the same as other retrievers.

Can you enlighten me a bit. I have never worked with a Chessy before, this came from two proffessionals that only train Chessy's. No doubt they are a beautiful dog, and once trained, very skilled.