4 Month Old Pointer Training

[KellyM87]

I have a 4 month old Llewellin setter who has been exibiting great hunting potential. I was wondering if anyone could let me know how I develop her skills and what is appropriate training for her age. Thanks again.

 

[kansaslabman]

I Think one of the greatest ways to train a dog is the pheasant wing tied to a fishing pole trick..I have two yellow labs and they both are pointing pheasants and quail now because of it

What you do is cut off a fresh pheasant wing and tie it to the end of a fishing pole.now the idea is to never let the dog catch the wing unless you tell him/her to fetch.start off in some short grass and throw the wing around w/ the pole and jerk it away when they try to catch it.pretty soon he/she should understand that they can't catch it so they creep up on it slowly and when they stop thats when you repeat the words WOA...WOA...WOA or whatever you prefer.then after they sit there for a while tell them to fetch and if they don't understand fetch give them a little nudge or motion to the wing with your hand.
repeat this for a while in short grass then move to the crp or taller grass.now they have to use their nose instead of their eyes.hide the wing and tell them dead bird or whatever you say to him/her and give them time to find it.once they find it they should freeze if they learned something from the shorter grass. tell them woa..woa then fetch

thats how i trained my dogs and that worked extremely well for me..but since you have a pointer and not a lab it might be a little different and he/she is only four months old so have some patience with it but i'm sure you'll have a blast training the pup
Good Luck and i hope this helps

 

[Oggie]

Wing on a String should be used for pupppy pics. only.. It is only site pointing not point by sent. It can cause problems down the road with bumping birds. A good video is The Perfect Start...

 

[Oggie]

http://www.perfectionkennel.com/video_series.htm

 

[kansaslabman]

yes oggie you are right but also in that long paragraph of mine haha..i also said that once the dog gets the idea of sight pointing you move to thick grass like crp and walk a ways from the dog hide the wing and then have him smell it..so they would have to use there nose but you are right about puppies and sight pointing

 

[superbad]

yes oggie you are right but also in that long paragraph of mine haha..i also said that once the dog gets the idea of sight pointing you move to thick grass like crp and walk a ways from the dog hide the wing and then have him smell it..so they would have to use there nose but you are right about puppies and sight pointing

Labman wings don't put off enough scent for this to be viable anyway really. You can't expect alot out of your 4 month old pup. Teach him to come to you and go with you. Expose the pup to everything possible such as water, fences, atv, horses if neccessary, other dogs, loud noises everything possible. I would not do the whole pen raised bird thing unless you live in an area or part of the country that has no wild birds. Put your hands on the pup. Put him up on a crate and style him up and get him used to being off the ground and to you putting your hands on him. Get a tie out stake and put him on it. He'll flop around like a fish at first but he will give up eventually and realize that this is where he is until you come and get him. The tie out stake will also teach him not to fight the checkcord also.

 

[kansaslabman]

well my lab was 5 months old at that point and it worked wonders for me but that was after he already knew to come and sit and all the basic commands..what works for one dog might not work for another but i don't believe my dog would be pointing today if it wasn't for the hours spend with the pole and wing training in heavy grass..anyways KellyM87 it sounds like Oggie and Superbad know what they are talking about so i'd go with what they say..Hope you have a good season as well as everyone else

 

[BritChaser]

Pup Training

Sharp looking pup. Hunting season is on so I would take her "hunting." I don't mean all-out hunting like you will ask her to do next season. But take her out to the pheasant fields for exercise, let her find some birds and get interested in them. Fire off a round once in while. When she gets bored, go home. With my Brit pup, I took him out for off-leash runs in the country while carrying my .44 which I would fire randomly two or three times while walking when pup wasn't looking at me as if it's perfectly normal for loud sounds to occur while out it in the country. I never stopped walking or said anything to the dog. I would simply pull the trigger and keep walking without doing anything differently. Pup hardly paid any mind to the noise. Later when we began to hunt, when it heard a shot he looked around excitedly for the bird.

 

[Oggie]

Sharp looking pup. Hunting season is on so I would take her "hunting." I don't mean all-out hunting like you will ask her to do next season. But take her out to the pheasant fields for exercise, let her find some birds and get interested in them. Fire off a round once in while. When she gets bored, go home. With my Brit pup, I took him out for off-leash runs in the country while carrying my .44 which I would fire randomly two or three times while walking when pup wasn't looking at me as if it's perfectly normal for loud sounds to occur while out it in the country. I never stopped walking or said anything to the dog. I would simply pull the trigger and keep walking without doing anything differently. Pup hardly paid any mind to the noise. Later when we began to hunt, when it heard a shot he looked around excitedly for the bird.

Couldnt have said it any better....... You would be surprised by some of the methods some use to introduce the gun and then they wonder why there dog is gun shy..