My wife and I have talked about a hunting dog but never made the plunge. Well, for my birthday this year, my wife bought me "Bob". He's a German wirehaired pointer. I received some text pages through the day from my wife, not knowing what to do with all the "wires" I was thinking she was putting something electronic together and then was thinking, why the heck is she taking it out of the box
. When I got home she had the kennel wrapped in wrapping paper. I recognized the shape as our kennel for the other dog, but still did not get a clue. After a while he started whining, but I still did not make the connection until my wife told me I should hurry up and let him out.
He was 4 months old (now 5 months old) and had already been hunting with his parents and been shot over prior to me getting. He fetches up a storm, comes most of the time, sits, and stays most of the time. Took him for a walk with our other dog (a border collie who also fetches, but doesn't really hunt) and came up on some quail that with some coaxing (had to get Bob downwind of them and away from the other dog) he held a pretty solid point. He was "birdy" just prior to seeing the couple of quail flush a short distance off the walking trail (flushed by me, the wife, and two little girls).
I've read the Kennel Club Book (not that helpful) and "Gun Dog" by Richard A. Wolters. Also looked at some nice training videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/willowcreekkennels. I live in Spokane and couple people have recommended some local trainers. Dunfur kennels and Double Barrel Ranch. I'm leaning toward the Double Barrel Ranch.
So, my question is this...how much hunting (and when can I "hunt"/train with him during the off season on public land), basic training, and professional training should I do now? How good at the basic commands (and which ones) does he need to do well before I would get the most out of the professional training?
The training videos above, use combination of positive reinforcement and a negative "vibration" for training. I like the idea of vibration instead of shocks and will probably also invest at some point in DT 1820 H2O (
http://www.cabelas.com/product/DT-Systems-H20-1820-Dog-Training-System/720094.uts).
