I've got a 6 1/2 month old lab that I've been working on training. It's my first bird dog I've ever trained and really have not been around too many. I'm having some issues with retrieving all she wants to do is just lay down and chew the dummies or anything else I throw. She was doing good with it for the first couple months just tossing it and she would bring it back with no pressure being applied then she started to teethe bad and I stopped and now that she's done all she wants to do is chew on anything I toss. Any help or recommendations on what I should do??

hey y'all!

next spring i'll be buying my first bird dog, an american brittany. i'll also be buying my first gun and going for my first hunts- this whole world is entirely new to me.

i plan on joining my local NAVHDA chapter in the spring and learning everything i can about the game. i'm also taking the necessary DNR hunter safety course next week. while i understand real life experiences are the best teachers, i'm a big reader and like to be as over-prepared as humanly possible.

as far as dog training goes, i'm not a complete beginner, but have obviously never trained a bird dog. what resources do y'all recommend? i'm looking for books, but if you have videos or podcasts or even classes that can be taken online i would love to hear about them! no preference for R+/balanced/whatever, anything goes, i can take what i read with a grain of salt and apply what seems reasonable for my own dog.

also, while i have shot guns before, i'll be new to whatever shotgun i end up buying- i plan on going to the range as much as i can, but any other resources or recommendations for getting better at shooting is a plus!

TIA!

Dog* fingers are cold in the field lol

I have a 3 year old setter, she’s just now getting into to hunting. Took us 5 months just to get her to chase and actively look for birds. There was a brief moment (2 week) where she would point quail flawlessly, was never super steady but would set into a point. I got her back from the trainer and have been working her a lot on pigeon, pen quail, and training handling (woah and recall). All in all she’s a good dog but out of no where she’s completely stopped pointing or flash pointing quail. She still points pigeons in a launcher. I don’t know what to do. Is she just destined to be a flusher? Do I need a check chord (I use one on the pigeons so the launcher isn’t in her face). She loves hunting and I’ll hit with her anyway way I can but I’d love to have a standard pointing dog so I can safely shoot over her. I know… just let her flush wild birds… we don’t have any in the Appalachians of VA. All I have are pen quail, pigeons, and the occasional (very occasional) grouse. How long should I wait for her instincts, and at what time do I call and start training and treating her like a flusher?

Hi all! I have a 9 year old lab dachshund mix, Mae, that I'm considering doing a bird introduction with. My dad is introducing his second bird dog to pigeons while I'm visiting for Christmas so I thought it would be a good opportunity. Mae is a rescue that we got at 6 years old and has always been an anxious dog, so the vast majority of training we've done has been confidence building and she's come a long way. She has a strong retriever instinct in her and always stays nearby when off leash. I don't necessarily have plans of bringing her to the field unless the bird intro goes particularly well, but I feel like it would be a good experience for her regardless - and who knows, it could go really well! Are their risks I'm not considering? Anything that I should consider given her breed and age? Thank you in advance for any insight!

New to bird hunting and new to owning a bird dog. I live near DC and if anyone has any recs for training a GSP in the area. I’ve hunted upland a few times and grouse as a kid and would love to simply chase woodcock and stocked pheasants. Thanks so much!

While there may not be any birds in this picture, there is definitely a bird dog there. Penelope managed to roust up about a dozen grouse today, and we had another six or seven birds flush at distance. She's got the nose for them, and the butt wiggles that let me know she's onto something. The weakest link in our team today was me. I'm sorry, girl. Dad will go to the trap range tomorrow and burn a couple boxes of shells to get his confidence back. A wonderful day spent doing what I love, with the best dog the Lord could ever give me.

Hey yall, I’m getting my dad a Christmas gift for his English cocker and I am not sure what size of Rex specs to purchase. I obviously want it to be a surprise gift and didn’t want to ruin it by trying to measure his dog. If anyone has some for their English cocker what size did you get? Thanks in advance.

Hello, Does anyone have some information on starting a bird dog and the first steps I should take with training on my own? I have an 11 month old Weimaraner.

Loony dog doing luna things! She loves it!

What’s the higher end price for a bird dog? I’ve talked to several people who have spent/know someone who has spent $4k+ on retrievers and coon dogs.

I don’t see any really high priced bird dogs online from the well known kennels. Think the highest price I’ve seen is $3k. Is there a whole nother level that I’m unaware of?

Any recommendations for good books on bird dog training? I’m particularly interested in versatile hunting breeds like GWPs. I mainly hunt chukar and waterfowl. Thanks in advance.

Hi all I have just started upland hunting (hunting in general). Many of you have seen my many post about me working with my pup but today is an equipment question. Currently I hunt with a smith and Wesson model 1000 20 ga (semi auto gas) and a Winchester model 1200 12 ga (pump). Both of these guns do great and do what I need to, but neither can be fitted for a choke. Another qualm I have is they both can be complicated to take apart, clean, maintain, and dry out. I hunt grouse, woodcock, quail, dove, and anything else you can shoot with a standard small game license. I am attracted to the break action guns because of their simplicity and safety while in transit (gun can’t fire if it’s open). I have looked at the silver pigeon, browning citori, weatherby Orion, and ruger red label. I am looking for a gun that will perform well and last forever, but won’t brake my wallet. I don’t care about looks. I care about performance, feel, and longevity.

Hi all,

Willow had a tough day on quail, she pointed really well in pigeon training this morning the. When we got out to quail she could not stop flushing, she flushed on pour quail 6 times before it flew way off into the woods. At the end of the day o was able to woah her to a point but it definitely wants a natural point. Then when I shot the bird (she stayed on woah until it flushed so I rewarded) it fell into a think briar patch and she busted her tail. She does this often is there anything I can do for her tail? And is the flushing just part of the process or am I doing something wrong (at points she’s wasn’t even attempting to point she was just busting the birds to chase them. As usual all tips are accepted.

Went after a diving duck this morning. First attempt crippled it, but I thought it was a dispatch. I sent the dog and it kept diving and swimming away. Kudos to my retriever. She didn’t give up and was certain she would get it.

The air temp was about 37. After about 7 minutes I got really worried and pulled her out. She was shivering like a ****. I dried her off and took off the neoprene. After some running around she was still shivering but not enough to worry me. Gums were still a healthy pink. I ended up putting her in the truck while I went back for it, but it got me thinking. Was I being overly cautious? Could she have kept going? How long in the water is too long? What if next time it’s a three minute swim but I want to go another hour? What if it’s a half hour back to the truck? I’m here for the dog not the bird and her coming home is all I care about.

The rest of the day she’s been giving me a look of guilt. She’s wondering if she did something wrong because she didn’t bring the bird back. I can’t tell her I was prioritizing her safety.

How would you handle this in the future? Obviously not crippling would be ideal.

I am a believer now. You don’t need birds to have a good time. You also don’t always need birds for your dog to learn hunting lessons. We didn’t find a single grouse until we loaded up the car to leave. But Willow learned to hunt the brush and the snow. She also learned how bad chafing is… I saw her grabbing and trailing scent, no idea if it was old grouse scent but she was definitely hunting the entire 3 hours we were out there. She even pointed, flushed, and chased a great blue Herron (3x the size of my 30lb dog). Fun day.

My setter will find and point and give chase but when it comes to grabbing them she’s like wtf is this? and just paws at it. I’ve cut some fresh wings off and tied them to her stuffed toy pheasant and she had no problem doing retrieves with that but a dead real bird is a no. Any ideas? Just keep trying? She’s a year and a half.

Docc putting up birds in beautiful MT