Any advice for my first time training a bird dog? Was raised hunting with beagles, terriers, and hounds. I still currently run beagles, though I’m sure training bird dogs is quite different. Wasn’t planning on getting a bird dog until spring but I kind of lucked into this 3.5 month old pup and couldn’t pass it up. He comes from a breeder with a great reputation and good bloodlines. I hunt pretty much everything my state allows, that being said he’ll mostly be hunting pheasants, quail and woodcock assuming I can properly train him. I also waterfowl and dove hunt so assuming everything goes good with the upland training he may be looking into retrieving work later down the road but I’m not nearly as concerned about that. Just trying to absorb as much knowledge as I can, thank you in advance.

Hello! Figured this is as good a place to ask as any even more so than the general pet owner subs because I think hunters who own GSPs know more about their quirks and peculiarities better than anyone!

Little background:

We currently have a 2yr old female GSP, fixed. Shes a house dog first and a hunting dog second, if only limited by my ability to make time to hunt with her. That said I do get her out once a week in the fall for wild and pen raised birds, so she does get to do what she was born to do.

On days she doesn’t hunt she spends mornings being lazy but then her switch gets flipped about mid afternoon. We have acreage and live in a dirt road so are able to take her for longer off leash walks or just let her play in the yard, though she really doesn’t care to be out there by herself. We also take her to the dog park 1-2 times a week to play with friends and socialize. On her worst days she is very demanding for attention and is very persistent either pawing us, bringing toys for us to throw, whining, playing keep away with socks and shoes, and occasionally getting into the trash. Not destructive and it’s all generally mild but she will do it for hours on end some times, which can be a bit draining. Which brings us to potentially adding a 2nd dog to the mix…

Adding a 2nd to home:

Through the dog park we learned of 4yr old male GSP that is needing to be rehomed due to the owner needing to move out of state for work. Same owner since he was a pup, well taken care of, AKC certified, current on all his vaccinations, has not hunted with him but said he is not gun shy and does point and is very interested in birds and squirrels. Need to make a decision by the end of the year or he will be forced to find someone else to adopt.

We met the owner and the dog at the local park yesterday and our dogs basically hit it off right out of the gate. Ours generally does well with other males and really is not aggressive, though does like to play rough which can be a turn off for less physical dogs. But they ran like bottled lightning for a good hour, rolled, jumped, and generally played like they had known each other all along. Which was incredibly encouraging! BUT on the flip side it was also a “oh crap do we really want TWO high energy dogs in the home?” Kind of realization.

Our hope (maybe foolish, but this is where I’m looking to other owners) is that they “entertain” each other more when they get bored versus annoy us. I’m sure they will still test our patience but really am just looking for pros and cons from all angles.

So anyone with two GSPs in the home can you comment on your experience? The good the bad and the ugly?

Thanks!

d_rek, A GSP owner

I have a 7 month old French brittany that has been introduced to bird and shot that went well. Been in the grouse woods and was doing really well with recall and working as a team. All that is gone he just takes off, hunts on his own and hard to get back. He is going back to the trainer in the spring but any ideas to get the recall back

My friends tease me for training my dog to use goggles but she loves getting seeds in here eyes and hates when I flush them out 🤷.

A good boy retrieving.

My 7 year old GSP showing my buddies 1.5 Brittany how it’s done. Watching a well trained gun dog work is like watching art happen in real time. The point, flush retrieve to hand. My old man is a weapon in the field.

2 year old Hazel the GWP is on 🔥

Chance was dialed in today.

Stocked Massachusetts bird (hen). The woods and cover here can be tough. We worked for this one.

We got a Labrador retriever and she doesn’t go too far from us but when we’re out hunting that’s a different story. She’s our first bird dog and so far she’s been doing great but there have been a few times where it took us up to 4+ hours to find after she ran off with my dad’s dogs. (My dad’s aren’t hunting dogs and have the recall of a peanut. We were staying at his farm and we let her out and she took off with the farm dogs.)

We’re looking for some collar/gps tracker recommendations. We’d love to find a collar that has a beeper/make noises to help the dog come back. We’re not too big of a fan of shock collars and are leaning more towards ones that beep.

We’re also looking for a good GPS tracker that doesn’t require cell service as most of the time we’re hunting in areas with no service. (We live in Rural Northern Ontario, Edit: we’re closer to the bottom of the James Bay than we are to Toronto). I’ve seen that Garmin has some dog trackers. We like Garmin a lot and use a lot of their products! But open to any suggestions.

What bird launchers do you all use for training? Looking for some suggestions!

I upland and waterfowl hunt with my Labrador and for the most part he does phenomenal aside from seeming to chase mice more than the birds sometimes when upland hunting. I've gotten bitten by the upland bug here lately and I'm thinking of adding a pointer later on down the road and are looking for some recommendations from you guys. I have a little experience with English and German Shorthaired pointers but have never trained a dedicated upland dog before. Or some training tips to get my lab more locked in would be great.

I posted awhile back about my trip to SoDak. My dogs feet healed up fon for the most part but I just took him hunting again recently and it appears he might have a nail infection. Has anyone had anything like this? Right now I have just been soaking in Epsom Salt and using Neosporin or an antiseptic spray. Hasn't gotten much worse but hasn't gotten much better. This is day 4 now. Was thinking of making an appt to the vet, but seeing if anyone else has had similar situations and how you solved them.

Went out phesant hunting in Wisconsin near Sheboygan, found a tick on me. I was surprised to find one this late in the season. Make sure you still go protection on those dogs.

River the Bracco (2.5 yo) killed it on the opener. She is quickly growing into a bird-finding machine. Love hunting behind such an amazing pup.