8 month lab x too late to start?

[Jmclean403]

Hello all! I look forward to being a member of this forum and hopefully training my lab x. Loki is 8 months old, half black lab. I’ve had him 4 weeks because the mother abandoned the litter. That’s left him with some peculiarities. Sometimes I don’t think he knows he’s not human.

He is nuts about birds. I started upland hunting this fall, and when we brought birds home he went crazy over the smell. I also cook the organs and give them to him. I’ve hid a partridge wing in the field and met him find it. Nose seems to be good. What is the most important few steps to hunting dog training? He’s accompanied me in the field on a rabbit hunt, not for hunting I just took him to see what he’d do off leash. His recall was excellent but he spent most time out of sight. Any tips anyone can give me. I have 2-3 hours a week minimum and sometimes more that I can spend on just training. Thanks everyone

[gonehuntin']

What's the other half?

[cjhills]

A little confused.
Did you get the puppy at 4 weeks old, or have you had him for only 4 weeks........Cj

[fishvik]

I'd work on obedience and keeping him in range. And then on to, fetch on command, and to hand retrieving and check for hard mouth. If the dog has prey drive for birds, you are pretty much there for upland hunting with a Lab or Lab cross. If you want to waterfowl hunt, work on stay and water retrieving. I've had a bunch of Lab crosses that turned into excellent upland and waterfowl dogs.

[Jmclean403]

What's the other half?

Border collie blue healer

[Jmclean403]

A little confused.
Did you get the puppy at 4 weeks old, or have you had him for only 4 weeks........Cj

I got him at four weeks. His mom stopped feeding the pups.

[Jmclean403]

The range thing is going to be an issue for sure. Ordering a check cord. He flushed his first pheasant on a walk in the field today but he would have been too far for a shot had we been hunting.

[gonehuntin']

Flushing dogs, which yours is, are easy. You can EASILY hunt him if you do ONE basic thing with him: Teach him unflinching, unyielding, obedience. HERE means HERE. Right now, right here. If a dog comes when you call it, anytime, anyplace, anywhere, that dog is huntable and will do better than 75% of the dog's in the field. Obedience is something you can do anytime, anywhere. Work on it inside and out. He'll be fine, IF YOU OBEDIENCE TRAIN HIM.

[Steve007]

Flushing dogs, which yours is, are easy. You can EASILY hunt him if you do ONE basic thing with him: Teach him unflinching, unyielding, obedience. HERE means HERE. Right now, right here. If a dog comes when you call it, anytime, anyplace, anywhere, that dog is huntable and will do better than 75% of the dog's in the field. Obedience is something you can do anytime, anywhere. Work on it inside and out. He'll be fine, IF YOU OBEDIENCE TRAIN HIM.

Can't argue with that, though you will have to teach him hand signals to develop a windshield wiper pattern in the field and for other purposes. Some dogs do that naturally, but you can't count on it with a crossbreed. Not hard to teach and he should be pretty easy to train. Work every day, short sessions. There are a lot of good books on training a flushing dog available. Summer is here. Good time to do an obedience foundation.

[gonehuntin']

Steve, all you really need is a check cord and a whistle. We just used to walk them through the field on a CC. Blow two short, sharp tweets and change direction with a soft tug on the CC. Pretty soon they get the hang of it and actually like it if they aren't abused doing it. Soon, you don't need the double tweet. Now, teaching them to stay in range takes a bit more work. But, it's still the same two tweets. Two tweets always means NO. It just mean different NO commands. NO, go this way. NO, you're too far out. NO, leave that alone. I believe the double tweet is one of the most useful commands ANY breed of dog is ever taught.

[Shrhr]

Obedience, Obedience. If you have Obedience you can do anything with the dog