Greetings:
I am a new black lab owner. He's 8 months old and I have been training him on sit, stay, come, heel, etc. He's been at a local gun dog trainer but introducing him to pigeons with pointing breeds.
I'm deciding to teach myself and my dog and would like some guidance. I have researched breeds, types of hunting dogs, etc, but I"m a little confused where to start. The guy I had him visiting had him introduced to birds right away and said not to worry about the retrieve, get him chasing birds.
So my question(s) are these:
Hunting mostly quail, (and eventually duck and geese with him) shall I start now with scent and flushing (maybe sit to point?)
Or shall I follow the traditional lab training books and videos and work on only the retrieve?
Whistle train or not?
Thanks in advance for anyone who can share some advice.
Paul
Introduction
Re: Introduction
I just had a very similar situation, and my best advice is to get Evan Graham's (EvanG on this forum) books. His Smartwork is a great book to follow. I have a soft dog that the trainer tried to push to hard to fast, he gave up on FF and then said the dog wasn't interested in birds. After going through the steps in the Smart series I have him forced fetched in 3 weeks, and it seems now that he knows that he's supposed to find the birds. He is looking like hunting machine I thought he would be.
