Great looking girl. Have a yellow male that I'm trying to teach to point, just working on obedience now. 16 weeks. I've had him out looking for birds 5 different occasions, just doing the walk with some planted chuckers. He went on point a Couple of times on the fourth trip out but not the last. That last time outhe chuckers all took off running and he chased. Lots of land to train, none of it has tall grass (all the ranches have been grazed down over winter, sage brush all that is left standing). Nowhere around to get quail. Any suggestions on bringing out the point?
Live on rio grand, fly fish everyday in summer. If your ever in the area and you can take a turn at the oars contact me and we'll do a float, have a dory and a decked out raft. in spring bring big green streamers before mud season, June..bring your dries.
I wish I could give you the magic recipe, but I can't really take much credit for teaching Molly how to point. All I did was spend a lot of time with her in the field and expose her to as many birds as possible. Turns out she has some pretty fantastic pointing lab genetics, which I can't take any responsibility for. I just did a little research, found a breeder I liked, and got lucky.
Molly didn't point anything until she was around 7 months old, which was back in January. We had given up on the wild bird hunt in Colorado, and had been working preserve birds for a couple of weeks. I was starting to think I had bought one of the PLs who would never really point, but then all of the sudden one day she just stopped flushing birds and started pointing them.
I had planted some Chukar and was working her through the field when she caught scent, swung around, and nailed a super stylish point. She held the point until I flushed the bird and then chased it 200 yards when I missed it. I thought it was some sort of fluke, but she repeated the feat 6 more times that day. She hasn't purposely flushed a bird since (she stumbled on a bird she didn't scent last weekend, but hey it happens right?).
So now I've got a pretty kick ass pointing lab IMHO...sure she chases birds when I miss, but never flushes them unless I need her to. Now she is off for a couple of months of training - obedience, force fetch, collar conditioning, and de-chasing. When I get her back she should have all the ingredients for a top notch dog. Then it's up to me to keep her on birds and not screw her up.
Pointing labs are a funny thing. Some point from the start. Some point early then seem to lose it. Some don't point until later, which is what I experienced with Molly. Some never really seem to get it at all. I don't think there is such a thing as "typical" pointing lab development.
I would recommend Julie Knutson's book
http://www.gunclub-labs.com/training_the_pointing_labrador.html. I read the book cover to cover, and then realized I should just drop Molly off at Julie's place and let her do all the hard work :thumbsup:
I got lucky with this one. I've had a few PLs - some better than others, but none as good as Molly appears to be.
Now I've just got to teach her to fish/float. My last chocolate lab could climb from the water onto my 8ft pontoon boat and would ride there patiently for hours. She was a better fisher than a hunter...
I might just take you up on the fishing offer. Never fished the Rio Grand, but I've always wanted to.
Cheers,
:cheers:
