Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Pheasat trading lab

I just got a lab she is 8 weeks her name is annie was wondering when tonstart training for pheasant and when to introduce the shock and tone collar. Also any tips on the basic commands would be great

Put the shock collar in the safe until she absolutely knows what she is supposed to do; and that is a good way down the road.

"Training Spaniels and Retrievers": Ken Roebuck

1) Here
2) Set
3) Stay
4) Fetch
5) Heal

In that order......

As already stated.....a shock collar is for enforcing what they already know....

What does heal mean

Heel. That means the dog walks at your side, i.e. at heel. Whichever side you prefer, but typically the left side. I would recommend a good training book. While some of his ideas have been debunked, Richard Wolter's book Gun Dog is a good one for starters. I still think it is worthwhile for the basics.

X2, I haven't read/seen this book/DVD, but I recommend highly his "Gundog Training Spaniels" http://www.amazon.com/Training-Spaniels-Gun-Dog-Staff/dp/B0013QTSQ2 I apply this method to both Spaniels and Flushing Retrievers. If this one is anywhere near as good it should be great. Great advice on the E collar as well, and when you do bring it out be sure you collar condition her properly before actually using it for correction

"Heel" should almost be more important that "come" in my opinion.

Really a smart dog will start learning the basics at about 4 months. Ramp it up from there. Have them learn a basic short retrieve with a dummy and be reliable, then attach a wing to the same dummy, rinse and repeat. Too much pressure too soon will take the fun out of it.

Do not train the dog unless you have immediate correction attached. Meaning the rope. Advance to shock collar once that is achieved. The shock collar will require you to be trained first, then the dog second.

Buy the Video "Water Dog". It was done by a local trainer Charlie Jurney based on Wolter's Water Dog book.

I know you asked about pheasants but obedience and basic hunting skillsets are the about the same.

twofish

You can do a lot better than Wolter's materials. Since you never trained a upland hunting dog before I would seek out those who have. Maybe join a local APLA club.

You will need a long check cord, training dummies (small), pheasant wings on a string, patience.

With my labs it was more getting them to teach me how to hunt over them than the other way. They came with all the requisite skills. My female (who died recently at 14) was retrieving triples out of the pond at 6 months. Teaching her to "come" was the hardest part...

My Current Project...

I got my female yellow Lab Dolly three years ago, when she was 8 weeks old.
She was housebroke almost immediately, always a good sign. We took her for walks along the river every day, to get her acclimated to the sounds, sights, and smells of the outdoors. I highly recommend doing this with any hunting dog pup.
She was taught sit, here, NO, and heel commands early on. When she got old enough to ignore those commands except when on a leash or cord, I introduced her to the e-collar. She took to it almost immediately. Once she began to respond reliably to verbal commands with the collar on, I substituted the shock with the beep signal- again, almost instant recognition of what that was all about.
She was introduced to game birds and pigeons, both live and dead, very early on, again something I believe is essential to getting a bird dog started off right. At about this time, I also began working on the Fetch command. This one took a lot longer than anything else. Introduction to gunfire started at around 3 months, first with cap guns, then .22 blanks, then the 28 ga. shotgun. No problems here.
We introduced her to pen-raised birds at 11 months, first by placing them and hunting her into the birds, and then just releasing them and letting her develop her hunting skills.
Dolly comes from a long line of pointing Labs, and by the second season, she was beginning to point. This season, she points reliably, and just vacuums up a field for birds.
If you have a good dog, the instincts are there, and strong- you just need to channel them correctly. Do it right initially, and you will have a great pheasant hunting buddy.

Above all else- birds make a bird dog!! Hunt early and often.