I don't know 'chit and this is my 1st hunting dog, but I've never used a leash in the woods. For street walks, absolutely, but never in the woods...
Started taking the pup before he was 9 weeks old. At first, he wouldn't go far. But every day, he'd get more bold, yet always 'check back' with me for reassurance. I'd pet him up when he returned on his own & say "good come back!", then encourage him to "go find em!"...
Constantly reinforcing that behavior taught him "come back" pretty quick. And saying "go find 'em!" when he left again helped to solidify that command in his little pea brain.
A month later, he sight chasing squirrels and treein' em!
Once he had a handle on "come back", I put the e-collar on him & began hitting the 'tone' when I called him back. Soon, he was coming back to the 'tone' only...
Pretty basic stuff and puppy treats definintely help
When I was confident that he'd 'tone' back to me, I took him on his 1st coyote stand & I luckily shot one over him. He didn't have a clue what happened, but seemed like he put the pieces together after the fact & wooled that sucker up good!
He trashed on his 1st deer @ 5 months & about gave me a heart attack finding him! That's when I got a Garmin Astro/DC 30 for him.
Since then, that GPS collar has been invaluable, as it allowed ME the confidence to let the pup range out & hunt without worrying about him getting out of sight.
Now, a year later, he covers ground like a heat seeking missle and the 5 sec refresh rate on the collar is waay to slow to keep tabs!!! He'll be gone for 10-15 minutes, then come back on his own. It's fun just to watch him on the Astro screen. And when he trees, I know exactly where he is...
Anyhoo, basically to start my pup, all I did was drop him in the woods & let him do his thing. Like I said, I don't have a clue about training hunting dogs, so I got really lucky to have a dog that didn't need much help...