Help with my first hunting dog

[nutntoit]

Meet Lincoln. He is a fox red lab from Morgans Point Ranch in Addy.


I am looking for some pointers on how to best introduce him to birds and retrieving. Right now he is only 8 weeks old and we have just been working on basic obiedience and socialization. He is just learning how to fetch toys and loves it, so that's good. I have a couple frozen birds and have shown him a wing on a string a few times. He really likes that, but I'm not sure the best way to use it. He was bred as a pointing lab so I would like to reinforce that as much as I can. I hunt mostly upland birds. Thanks for any tips you guys have.

[kselkhunter]

Beautiful dog. 

[HunterofWA]

There's a book by Richard A. Wolters called, GAME DOG. It has just about everything in it for upland bird and waterfowl. It goes step by step through the age of the dog and teaches you what to teach the dog at that time.
https://www.amazon.com/Game-Dog-Retriever-Waterfowl-Training/dp/0525939423

He makes the case that once you teach a dog to Sit, Stay, & Come, you can teach it just about anything.

Cute dog by the way!

[huntnfmly]

Nice looking pup.
Keep it fun like you are doing and don't over do it

[constructeur]

Did you ask the breeder any of these questions?

[ghosthunter]

There's a book by Richard A. Wolters called, GAME DOG. It has just about everything in it for upland bird and waterfowl. It goes step by step through the age of the dog and teaches you what to teach the dog at that time.
https://www.amazon.com/Game-Dog-Retriever-Waterfowl-Training/dp/0525939423

He makes the case that once you teach a dog to Sit, Stay, & Come, you can teach it just about anything.

Cute dog by the way!



 :

[HunterofWA]

As far as the birds go, use them to teach him to use his nose. And another thing, don't play tug of war with him, cause then he will develop what is called "hard mouth". The reason this is bad is he will bite to hard on the bird and cause damage to the meat. Using a frozen bird later on helps fix that because he isn't able to bit into it.

One other important thing to keep in mind while your socializing him is to make sure he doesn't get scared. Bring him to a trap shoot to get him accustomed to guns and such.

[Old Dog]

Get this book.  http://www.gundogsupply.com/training-the-pointing-labrador-julie-knutson-book.html

Julie Knutson is the most successful trainer of pointing labs in the country.

You might also want to hook up with Northwest Pointing Labrador Club.  We have monthly training days, and i think you will find us to be very friendly and supportive.

[Colin]

If I had an 8 week old puppy I'd work on little treat training stuff. Exposing him to as many new places as are safe considering his age and that he won't have had all his shots yet. Also I'd work on making him comfortable with being in a dog crate and easing into potty training.

Sounds like a good time to start doing research on what kind of training you'd like to achieve and make a plan of how you'd like to get there. Internet advice is going to be all over the place as far as what to do when and how to do it. Read and watch everything you can and seek out as much info as possible. The more you know the better dog you'll have. Tons of infomation out there if you look, lots of it for free.

About the last thing I'd do is bring an 8 week old puppy to a trap shoot.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[nutntoit]

Did you ask the breeder any of these questions?

Yes I did. The breeder is actually the one to give me the birds for training. I just want to get as much information as I can to help train him right.

[nutntoit]

Thanks for the tips guys. I have already trained him to sit, the beginnings of stay as well as drop. He is about 85% potty trained and asks to be let outside most of the time. Basic obidience I am good with as I have trained a few pups. The area I know little about is gun dog training. I have him enrolled in a month long training course but that isn't until next summer. I want to focus on getting him used to retrieving and hopefully pointing before I send him off to training. I have been scouring the internet for information as well as asking family who have raised hunting dogs. I feel like now is the time to instill the drive and desire to hunt and don't want to miss any opportunity I have.

[huntnfmly]

If he is a pointing breed.you do not want to teach him to sit.you want to teach him to whoa.
It has to do when in the field when there is pressure on the dog he will revert back to sitting instead of pointing.
Guys on here with pointing breeds may be able to explain better

[ribka]

If I had an 8 week old puppy I'd work on little treat training stuff. Exposing him to as many new places as are safe considering his age and that he won't have had all his shots yet. Also I'd work on making him comfortable with being in a dog crate and easing into potty training.

Sounds like a good time to start doing research on what kind of training you'd like to achieve and make a plan of how you'd like to get there. Internet advice is going to be all over the place as far as what to do when and how to do it. Read and watch everything you can and seek out as much info as possible. The more you know the better dog you'll have. Tons of infomation out there if you look, lots of it for free.

About the last thing I'd do is bring an 8 week old puppy to a trap shoot.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

a lot of good advice

yep - exposure, socialization after shots basic obedience. then worry about pointing and retrieving.

have fun. if dog is not listening stop training take a break.no hurry in training, every dog learns at own pace.you would be surprised how much dog learns on own during training process. After a few months work on prey drive with lots of live birds. Then can expose to very soft gunfire like a pellet gun or 22 blank from farther away and incorporate in the live bird, whoa and retrieving process. If dog is not learning. Take a few days off and start on basics for a few days. One day it will click with dog. For some it is at 4 to 6 months and others can take a year or a bit more. Can slowly introduce water training when it warms up a bit.

I think the e collar can help a lot for some dogs but you have to know how to use it

keep training sessions short . check out navhda groups in the area and can learn a lot

[constructeur]

Did you ask the breeder any of these questions?

Yes I did. The breeder is actually the one to give me the birds for training. I just want to get as much information as I can to help train him right.

I'm not sure where you are in Ewa, but on versatiledogs.com and refugeforums.com there is a memeber, Doc E that is in NE Washington, and knows and breeds with the Morgans.

http://www.docsdognutriceuticals.iwarp.com/ If you can't find him on those sites that is his website.

Doc E is into the HRC thing, you should check that out IMO. Have fun!

[joe_dumy]

Your getting a mixture of good and bad advice. If you want to train your self you need to find a good method that works for pointing labs and stick with it. Or find a trainer that can train you and your dog at the same time. You can then go home and keep training. Probably like 10 2 hour visits would get you good results. If you want great results I suggest having him trained by a pro. You will learn a lot about bird dogs but hunting behind one that a pro trained.