Upland training

[zink2013]

I have a 9 month old lab i got some quail over the weekend so we went out and had a training day. only problem is the quail would not bust out they would jump 3 feet in the air flapping there wings and land right next to my dog and he would pick them up bring them to my hand. i had 13 quail and not one of them took flight good enough to shoot and he caught all 13 and brought them back to me all 13 are unharmed and back in the cage. he is a yellow lab i was just wondering if this is a bad thing or not he is steady to shot as far as in the duck blind and dove hunting but i never got to shoot over him so i was not sure if he would of hold or not he holds well in training but this was the first time i have been able to get ahold of some upland birds to shoot over him so it made for a very intresting training session. any ideas what i can use these 13 quail for besides the dinner table lol? i gave up on them birds after he flushed all 13 that were planted. so we went out and got a good limit of squirl.

[Del Lolo]

That's the major problem with pen raised birds.

Also. what do you mean by the word "hold"?"
Are you talking about "mouth habits"? Or Steady to Flush/Shot/Fall ?

[zink2013]

He is steady to shot in the blind and like dove hunting basically steady to a place command he is not aloud to leave place/ blind without my command.but i have never got to shoot a bird that he has flushed so i dont no what his reaction would be . i do not plan on hunt testing him with upland birds so i am not really to concerned about him behing steady cause i no the phesant after you shoot them when they hit the ground there running so if ur dogs not on there tail u run a good chance of loosing them. so i have heard a couple diffrent things that he should be steady over a flushed bird and then agian he should break after the bird any opinions would be very thankful.

[Del Lolo]

Ask any Veterinarian who sees a decent number of hunting dogs and they will tell you that many of them have shotgun pellets in their butts.
A dog will mark the fall much more accurately if it's steady. When the dog is already running, they don't mark as well.
IMO, a steady to flush/shot/fall dog is a requirement of mine.

[gonehuntin']

That's what a lab does; he flushes and retrieves. I don't see a problem with that. If you wNt him to be steady to flush, that starts in the yard. Teach him to sit tot the whistle, then when hope flushes in the field, blow the sit whistle.

I never wanted nor asked a retriever to be steady.

[SpringerDude]

The best thing that could have happened is that your dog caught all 13 birds. You have a young dog. If you are wanting to "test" the dog and see if it would be steady to flush, you need to start with hand tossing taped wing birds when the dog is sitting out in front of you, about the distance of the dog flushing a bird, and let the dog get used to staying steady while you toss live birds. You can use the "non flushing quail" in the field to help teach a search pattern, using the wind correctly, and learning to search for game in the field.

If those birds had flushed and you were trying to shoot them, AND keep the dog from chasing, then you would have had a circus on your hands. Been there, done that. The last thing you needed was to be nicking with a collar while the dog is learning to hunt birds. That could turn him off in a hurry.

It would be good if you could find some spaniel guys in your area to help you through the process.

If you train for steady to flush, shot and fall, you can still send the dog as early as you want if you have a lightly hit rooster.
If your dog is not steady, then that is OK as well. Just make sure it is a safe shot first. I have seen situations where an unsteady dog has an advantage on bird recovery over a steady dog. A steady dog marks better? That depends on the situation in the field. sometimes but not always.

[Grange]

I watched a training video where the trainer used remote bird launchers and the whistle command for sit to train sit to flush. The trainer flushed the bird when he saw the retriever working the scent and then blew the sit command.

[zink2013]

okay i did not think that blowing the whistle on the flush would be holding steady but in a way it is i guess. if i blow the whistle he sits only problem is he turns and looks for my signal so that could be difficult. but i imagine with a bird up he will focus on the bird but i just need to get some better birds. If i can sit him down on a full chase with a buck at i think he wont have a problems sitting on a flushed bird. so i can probably just use the whistle if we have a low flying bird just hit the whislte to keep him out of harms way but other then that just let him follow the bird sounds like the best thing to do. Thanks you all for your help it is much appreciated.