Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs good book to help train?

I'm going to be getting a Brittany soon, and I've never really had a bird dog before. The breeder who I'll be getting him from gives a bit of lessons but I was wondering if there is also a good book to read that could help me train when I'm on my own.

Delmar Smith is the premier Brittany guru on the planet. His book "Best Way to Train Your Gun Dog" is the pick of the litter. Both he and his son Rick have vids out now too.

NB

Now being new to gun dogs, Do I HAVE to send mine to one of those month long stays and have them trained by a pro? 600 is steep for me since the pup is going to be in the 700-1000 range. Im weighing my options BEFORE I get the pup so I want to see if I can do it myself.

Now being new to gun dogs, Do I HAVE to send mine to one of those month long stays and have them trained by a pro? 600 is steep for me since the pup is going to be in the 700-1000 range. Im weighing my options BEFORE I get the pup so I want to see if I can do it myself.

In regards to Brittanies being sensitive, I think I'll be ok there. I have 2 collies that I've worked with and trained and them are probably the most sensitive dogs I've ever met.

I second the Wolter's books; I used "Game Dog" and "Water dog" to train my retrievers (I've never trained a pointer....yet), and they came out well.
As for sending off a dog to a professional: I don't know what you are expecting, but if you are just looking for a hunting companion, I say do it yourself. I trained all my dogs (1 American water spaniel, 2 Chesapeakes, and a Labrador) myself....what I wanted was a dog that would 1.) find birds within gun range 2.) flush said birds 3.) retrieve to hand the birds that were shot and 4.) retrieve ducks to hand that were shot and 6.) do their best to recover cripples.
So far, I haven't been disappointed....I have made mistakes (my first dog had a bit of a hard mouth), but I learned from them. You will need to invest TIME, however.....if not, you will send them to a pro and invest money. It doesn't take much time, but it does take some time. It will also take some investment into items like: bumpers, starter pistols, pigeons, etc, etc.
....but over all, I would say that I got just as much out of the time invested as the dog did, so it was a win-win situation all the way around.

Wolters "Gun Dogs" or "Game Dog" are good places to start.

Rick Smith is pretty amazing too. Maybe get one of his video's.

I don't know much about training upland dogs but having run retriever HT and FT for 10 years I can say Wolters books are GARBAGE.

I am not sure if it is still in print, but the pointing dog book by Kenneth Roebuck is a great resource. I trained an English Springer spaniel and two.Boykins with his flushing dog book and had three great dogs that would hunt under real conditions as well as be competitive in hunt tests and the timed pheasant events. My buddy trained his Britt with the pointing dog book and she was the only pointing dog that I wanted to own. Not stirring the pot, I just prefer flushing dogs.Enjoy your pup.