New bird dog

M

ms_kritter

New member
Well, I'll just cut to the chase. I just bought a lab puppy, no bloodlines, not registered, nothing. Want to to use him in the field but not expecting anything spectacular out of him. He is six weeks old. I've never trained a bird dog but I've helped a little with my grandfather and coon dogs in Mississippi. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Retrieve mainly. I am in the military, so I move around alot. I figure a having him retrieve will be a good all around skill that we can use no matter where we go. But I have personally never used a dog for hunting, so I have no idea where to start.
 
When I was a pre-teen and a teenager, my Pop used to raise and train bird dogs...I got to do a bunch of the grunt work, but loved working with the dogs and several of them won regional field trials..

Obtain a batch of bird feathers (hopefully from your target species) and place them in an old boot sock tied tightly...It makes a good throw item, or hide item, for the dog to begin retrieving,,,

I wouldn't start it out with the process until it gets to be 4-6 months old and some of the 'puppy' attitude has gone..Start slowly and with a high degree of patience....Keep a supply of training treats in your pocket (available at most pet stores) and give it one every time it does the task correctly, along with a lot of praise and using a good boy 'happy' voice...

General Obedience Training will do a lot to get the animal into the habit of responding to your voice and set the tone for learning specific commands/reactions..

If you decide to move into the 'Flush' activity, get a wing from a target bird species and tie it to the line on a casting fishing rod, weight it so it can be cast a decent distance and then once you have cast it out, have the dog find it an teach it to "Hold" on it's point until you give the command to flush...Here again, training treats will reinforce the proper response, as well as a couple of "good boy" comments....

Good luck with the dog and Labs are natural retrievers, so the training process should be pretty quick...My daughter has two and they love to work..
 
you will probably get mixed answers, but training my dog to retrieve was actually pretty easy.

I started playing fetch with her in the hallway when she was a pup. This is where she learned "release" and "here". I also introduced her to pheasant wings at a very young age just to get her interest in them. They were sort of a treat to her. I started planting wings and letting her sniff them out then bring them to me, where I would trade her for a treat. She will also need to be introduced to gun shots but I do not know when a good time to do this is.

There are tons of books on training dogs, and they make them so easy to follow that sometimes I wonder if they were written for the actual dog. My recommendation would be to spend as much time with the pup and you can, and positive reinforcement has been my best training technique. Let her know when she does good and she will remember.
 
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OLD Turtle is right on. Obedience training. Feathers in a sock then live or dead birds. Are you planning on Pheasant, Quail, Duck hunting? He is a Labrador RETRIEVER. He should retrieve just fine. If you are planning on hunting Quail or Pheasant he needs to be trained to work close and not get too far out away from you. If he flushes birds too far out you will not have a chance for a shot and that will be frustrating. Teach him to work close and teach him to come back when you whistle. Good luck!
 
As I said before, I'm in the military, so I move around alot. The most immediate species we will hunt is duck and grouse. I take trips to Mississippi annually, so we may do some dove hunting if the timing is right. I appreciate all of the advice from you guys and keep it coming if you feel the need. I'm always willing to listen and learn.
 
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