transition

[evantraylor]

ok, i got a question. ive been working with my 7 month old gsp in the yard. retrieving tennis balls, weather throwing them and her going and getting them and bringing them back. or me leaving her inside placing the balls in seperate places and letting her out and tell her to go and get them and she will and brings them to me. when she was 4 months, i sent her to a trainer for a month who introduced her to birds, and a little gunfire. my question is, how do i transition her to taking her out in field and her going and getting birds i shoot down? this is where im confused. id like to take her on a dove hunt in san angelo in sept, so she can get some work in. any help?

[bobman]

I cant think of a worse way to get a dog into hunting then a dove hunt the problem is lots of confusing shooting without the dog see a dove fall is going to scare the heck out of it.

You want to take the dog out let it point birds quail pheaswants whatever then flush the bird ( which the dog will be watching) and shoot ( just one shot) and have that bird fall so the dog can make the connection between the noise of the shot and the bird falling for it to get.

There is no way I would even consider bringing a first year green pup to a dove shoot, your chances of ending up with a gunshy dog is very strong

[tommyboy72]

I second bobmans opinion and speak from experience. I used to take all my pups on dove hunts to shoot over them and while none of them ever stayed gunshy they were confused and intimidated by the loud sounds. This method does seem to work better with retrieving breeds than with pointing breeds. Labs (which is the retrieving breed I have had) seem to pick up on the fact that the birds are coming in from a high position and will start marking the birds about 2 days into it and seem to be over the gunshyness by 3 days into it but pointing breeds generally need to see the birds coming up from a low position on the ground to put it all together. I am no expert by any means but am just speaking from my personal experiences with this method. The pointers got over their fear of gunshots as soon as we hit quail season and they could see the birds flushing but I learned not to use this method with pointing breeds.

[evantraylor]

ok. thanks for the info, and it makes sense. heres another question. does it matter if i dont really on training her to point, more so just retrieve? ive never been quail or pheasant hunting, only dove.

[bobman]

You have to figure out a better way to expose her to shooting if you want to just use her for retrieving in Texas I would hunt alone or with just one other hunter so only one person shot and have a experinced retriever with you so she can make the connection

you dont train dogs to point its instinct

If you do a lot of drilling of retrieve work with a shorthair it will become bored and resistant 5 retrieves a session is plenty

[evantraylor]

shes got the instinct to point. when she was 5 months old, i sent her to a trainer for a month. he just did some basic work with her. getting her exposed to birds and working her on them, going over basic commands, and introducing the sound of a shot. im pretty sure im gonna send her back to him for 3 months, so he can finish her. but he doesnt want her until shes a year old. i just wanted to keep her exposed to birds, just not sure of the consequences of taking her on a hunt before she goes back to the trainer. its hard work when you have no prior experience with a bird dog. we are learning together. luckily there are sites like this to learn on.

[kninebirddog]

I also will not take my young dog on dove hunts...
As Bobman explained there is just to much that can go wrong and cause issues...

also if you do not have a strong Bird retriever doves can sour a dog out

I do take some of my older dogs

Have fun with your dog and let them grow up then once the dog relaes the gun to hunt and fun...take it from there