3yo shorthair

[quackkiller]

Ok so this is so frustrating.... I have a 3yo male shorthair, he is an absolute great dog! But when it comes to hunting he just won’t range or go more than 30yards away from me... granted I have not had the time to sit and work with him as I did with my old female... she was an crazy hunter trained her myself. Got her in the 5th grade and had so many people just be astonished on how well she hunted for me. Just lost her 3 weeks ago at 15 years old! Needless to say only having this be his 2nd hunt out and having a buddy’s dog do all the work  from points to retrieve is just hard to watch... any advice on where to start would be awesome. Like I said I have trained dogs before but I just don’t know where to start with him considering he just won’t “GO” thanks to all ahead of time!

[John B]

How much exposure to birds has he had? I'm no expert, but my dog took a while to get interested in birds. The more he saw the more he wanted them. You're in Buckley? I just bought a house on 165,  getting a shorthair puppy in about a month.

[quackkiller]

He has had very little that was going to be my plan in a few weeks is just go buy a bunch of birds and let him have fun and mess up and just get super birds but like I said I’ve never had this problem before. My old dog would have bloody pads after 15 miles of hunting chukar and still running as hard as when she left the truck to just find birds... yes I am in buckley.

[jackson7]

Every dog is different. We often expect our new dogs to mirror our past dogs. With expectations comes disappointment. they are all different and develop at various stages.
Get him out as much as you can in various types of cover on different types of birds. I would guess each hunt shows a little more progress. By the end of the season she will be doing fine. Let us know how it goes. good luck.

[quackkiller]

I will keep ya posted, just confirmed got access to a bunch of birds from a buddy so next weekend we shall see!!!