Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Pointer training DVD/ book help

Our 13 1/2 year old Golden Retriever Cooper just passed and my 4 year old Lab needs a new playmate in the house. Not to mention my kids and I really want a second dog also. We have decided to go with a German Shorthair.
This will be the first pointing breed I have ever owned or hunted with. I'm hoping to find some good books or DVD's about training so I'm prepared when we get a dog later this spring/summer.

Any recommendations on training books/dvd's would be greatly appreciated!

I found the book "Favorite Ways to Train Your Birddog," by Mark Payton helpful. Perfection Kennels has a DVD series on training pointing dogs. It is very detailed and they use untrained dogs in the videos which I found helpful. They have a website. George Hickox also produces some good DVD's, and he is a highly regarded trainer. I found some of his methods overly complex and too reliant on special equipment for me. I learned a lot from my breeder. I would occasionally take my first dog there, and we would train my dog as well as other dogs staying at his kennel for training. I was able to observe the reactions of different dogs in various stages of training. Your breeder probably has an idea of which methods have worked well with dogs of his previous breedings. I could very well be wrong about that though. Good luck. Remain patient. You'll have a lot of fun with it. Oh yeah, start looking for a source of training birds if you don't already have one.

How to Help Gun Gogs train themselves by Joan Bailey

Trading the a versatile Hunting Dog byChuck Johnson
DVDs
George Hickox, Pointing Dog Series

Smart Fetch, Evan Graham

Puppie development l and ll by Rick and Ronnie Smith

Join the local chapter of NAVHDA (North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association) and pick up their "green book" on training. It is a very good book for beginners. You will also be able to attend training seminars and sessions to help you and. Your dog along on your journey.

Navhda green book and How to help your gun dogs train themselves.

Work obedience and put the dog on birds.

Wild bird contact will train a pointing dog better than any human could hope to.

Thanks for all the recommendations guys! I will ordering a couple these books and DVD's in the next week or so. I think we will be okay with basic obedience, it's the whole pointing thing that I am unfamiliar with haha. Should be a fun experience for us though!

I ordered a copy of Training the versatile Hunting Dog by Chuck Johnson and I am about half way done reading it. Very informative!
I am definitely going to have my work cut our for me trying to do live bird training with this dog. Since other then private preserves in my state I can't do live bird training anywhere.

On the lab I hunt with now I went right from training with just wings to taking her bird hunting with very good success. It's pretty apparent though from what I have been reading that with a Pointer live birds are a must.

Get the Perfect Start Start/Perfect Finish. The great thing shout the PS/PF is that it shows untrained dogs, their mistakes, and how to deal with problems as well...... Finding birds may be a daunting task, but pointing dogs need birds, birds, and then some more birds.

Thank you I will look for those videos as well as a couple others that were mentioned.