Gun Dog Forum

Thank you for the insight and recommendation. What you describe as Russian Olive jungle in Idaho is very similar to the swampy jungles here in Washington and Oregon. Impenetrable stuff that can rip a dog up in short order. I'm reluctant to go the Labrador Retriever route simply because I want a dog...

For a part of my life I was the head trainer at perhaps the largest gun dog kennel in the country, running 120 dog's in training at a time. Most were flushing dog's but we ran a lot of pointing dog's also. Point is, I've had a lot of experience with probably every breed of flushing dog except the B...

My poor American Brittany was hunted in swamp land, forced to hop and wind his away through terrible vegetation and now at 10 years of age can only hunt 3-4 hours before ending the day with a seriously bad limp. That is one critical issue I want to avoid with a flushing dog. I hate to say it, but t...

I hate to say it, but there is a degree to which this is just par for the course. .... it may be mostly an age thing and unavoidable. Putting aside hip dysplasia, how many people take the time to properly condition an older dog before bird season? You can't just leave them in the kennel and then "h...

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the thoughtful responses. Honestly, I've only hunted my Brittanys in that swamp land on the rez and they simply were not having it. They're smaller dogs, athletic, but are literally walking on the grass bent over to get anywhere and I'm not having it. I want them ...

I don't have the same amount of experience with flushing breeds as some of the ladies and gentlemen on this board, so if you are looking for advice on flushing breeds, you should probably be soliciting others advice as well. I will also clarify, that the point I was trying to make where you quoted ...

I think you answered your own question. You have your heart set on a Boykin. Who is paying for the dog and upkeep? Who is training it? Who is it living with during the 9 months that aren't hunting season? Get what you want, and it sounds like that is a Boykin. I know a guy that uses Boykins as duck...

If you get a pup, make sure the parents are OFA certified. Once you get the registered names of parents, it will be listed at the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals website. Boykins are off the charts for bad hips. There are 200 breeds and statistically, they are thirteenth ranked worst for hip dysp...

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the thoughtful responses. Honestly, I've only hunted my Brittanys in that swamp land on the rez and they simply were not having it. They're smaller dogs, athletic, but are literally walking on the grass bent over to get anywhere and I'm not having it. I want them t...

I live in Washington near a reservation that is notorious for being load with pheasant that enjoy hiding in cattails, marshes, and 6' tall grass. In other words, very difficult territory for a pointing dog to navigate on point and hope the pheasant flushes on a staunch point. I'm convinced, the best...

I'm feeling rather defeated at the moment. I'm sure this is not a new subject on this particular forum so apologies if my story is just an oft repeat of others. I own two Brittanys, one 8-month old French Brittany female and one 10-year old American Brittany male. The 8-month old female recently wen...

This Tractive looks very nice and affordable! Is it that rugged compared to a Garmin or Sport Dog? I'm surprised their GPS e-collars are so expensive compared to the Tractive models.

Thank you guys for the help, this is all very useful! I suspect the real emphasis on this will be recall on the whistle and tracking. Now, you mention a GPS collar, I will seriously consider one. Do you recommend a particular make and model? Should I take a shovel with me in case the dog gets stuck?...

Hello guys, got some questions for you regarding training a Jack Russell Terrier to be a rabbit dog. Now, I'm used to training bird dogs, I've got two Brittany's I've even hunted rabbits and porcupine over. That being said, I've inherited a 6 month old female Jack/Parsons Russell Terrier and I'm kee...

My Brittany is my first gun dog I've ever trained and this has been my first year hunting over him. He's 1.5 years old and very birdy. I hunt in central Oregon which often means either steep hills or marshy terrain in cattails taller than I am. The difficulty is that this terrain is often not conduc...

How old is your pup? My pup is now 14 months old and today had a solid session of retrieving in the yard but once again after I transported him to the field he had no interest and would rather search for birds. As I said he is pointing consistently now in the field and still very birdy, would it be...

I've been playing fetch with him since he's been 8 weeks and he's performed consistently with yard work but I'm noticing a reluctance with anything in the field whether that be balls, bumpers or wings. Would you recommend a force fetch program? Or specific techniques with the Brittany due to its so...

I took pup out on his first training hunt and he performed well. Busted a few pheasant hens but pointed staunch on 3 others so I'm proud and know he'll only get better. With the hens we did harvest, he didn't have any inclination to retrieve period, only mark where the bird lay. I had no expectation...

Thank you everybody for your input, it has been very helpful! I'm learning a lot here as this is my first pointer to train but am glad to know this problem is readily fixable and not as dire as I first thought. Systematically approaching this I can see that he's started to associate the scent of a b...

You made a visual crutch. Yes it is fixable. Yes, you will need birds. No, you dont NEED to buy a remote trap, but one would really help right now But you also need someone close that can help guide you along. Do you think repeatedly drilling flushing birds with a remote launcher and no human in th...

I've ran into a bit of a dilemma with my one year old Brittany and his pointing. I've been training him on point with a manual bird launcher and coturnix quail. So to train him to point I've had my wife pull the cord and launch the quail whenever my pup got within 10 feet of the bird launcher. It wo...

Will do, thanks for the advice guys. You've saved me a lot of hassle before I got ahead of myself.

Yup, Id say ezzy is right on here. I've not seen many young dogs that didn't chase tweeties, and haven't seen many that didn't grow out of it ...... for the most part...... I'm a little curious, you mentioned him getting to far away, and said that was your concern. What do you expect from your dog ...

Thanks for the heads up guys, from here on out I'll only use the ecollar for come command. Certainty don't want to hurt his prey drive and since it's only happened twice I'm sure the impact will be minimal.

For the most part I don't want him distracted and ranging too far from me. He's doing a great job now staying in close but I'll absolutely lose him on songbirds. I'm also concerned it's a habit he won't break if it's not nipped in the bud eventually. If you have other suggestions besides an ecollar ...

My 1 year old Brittany is showing his true colors and doing a great job finding game birds and holding point in the field. He still has issues though with the song birds and frequently feels inclined to try chasing them into the next county. I recently got the SportDog 425 e-collar to re-enforce the...

I'm new to training versatile hunting dogs so I'm being cautious and was looking for advice on introducing my 7 month old male Brittany to live birds. I live in Oregon and work on a tree farm with 700 acres of trees including spruce and pine that are full of quail. My Brittany is already showing a g...