If you can get your dog on A LOT of wild birds at a young age it really helps. I hunted along side a number of guys with high dollar professionally trained dogs( it was obvious they did not spend much time training with them) and I witnessed again and again their dogs failing to deal with running roosters, sharpies . Most would just chase running birds a few hundred yards out and kick them up way too far away. In the meantime the owners yelling, swearing, blowing their whistles and shocking them to near death on the ecollars. It was obvious they were trained on pen raised birds.
I put my dog on 100's of wild birds the first year in the Dakotas and after a week or so she picked some of the tricks used by roosters, huns, sharptails. As soon as she picked up scent she would immediately run ahead in a wide circle a 100 yards or so, and using the wind work her way back to me. Stopping ocassionally to make eye contact with me to see I was involved. In high cover she would pogo to see my location. Both of us moving quietly, no constant yelling or tweet tweet tweet on a whistle. Does she managed to find every smart rooster? If i needed to nudge her in another direction a quick vibrate on her collar. Of course not but each time she learns more and more. Fun to watch. I see a good deal of guys whose dogs, even the very expensive ones, just run ahead and hunt for themselves. It is amazing how much a well bred, not necessarily expensive dog, can learn on their own when exposed to a lot of birds. just my opinion of course.
I'll hunt alone with no dog then with a poorly trained dog these days. If you can get a few guys who know what they are doing you can work cover quite well without a dog. Usually one guy has to bust cattails or the thick stuff.and if needed set out a blocker but beware of safety. Park vehicles at least a 1/4 mile from area hunted and sneak into area hunting
Excellent advice. Esp about getting pups involved at an early age on WILD birds.
