Gun Dog Forum

I have a GSP that is almost 6 months old. I am wanting to train him to hunt (mostly pheasants) and have never done it before. When looking around there are so many different options and I'm not really sure where to start..

He knows some of the basic stuff (sit, stay, come, and will fetch a few times until he gets distracted). I am looking for some kind of guide or something along those lines that tells me what I need to do and what order it needs to be in.

Thanks for any tips or help.

Look at (Steady With Style) on your computer. And get the book Training with Mo.

In the Training section of this forum there is a new thread called:
"New to Training advise please".
[/url]viewtopic.php?f=89&t=52335[url] which asks the same question...........

Also the entire Training section contains dozens of similar questions and long discussions about training methods.

Most of the advice boils down to this: If you are going to train the dog yourself instead of using a professional trainer, then pick one of the many excellent training methods by the great pros,( Mo, Hickox, Smiths, Ebert, Hann, Higgins and many others), study their methods carefully and follow them and you can't go wrong. Develop, acquire, purchase a source of lots of birds, learn to read your dog, be patient and quiet in training. Don't rush into something if you don't know what you are doing.

Good Luck, It will be fun................

Find yourself one, just one, book or site with training info and use it. Take your time and be sure you have pretty good ide what your looking for and use it. Many people read several different book's and they are all different, and they are all the same! It really doesn't matter which method you use, the key is to learn to read your dog, set him up not to fail and be consistent in what your doing.

Setting your dog up not to fail is important to me. If you do that it will surely fail, who's fault is that. Don't teach bad thing's. Learning to read your dog is very important, your dog will pretty much tell you what it's gonna do with body language, learn to read it. Being consistent is also very important. You cannot teach a dog to sit by giving it a different different command for it every time.

Troops159 wrote: and will fetch a few times until he gets distracted).

At his age, stop retrieving BEFORE he gets distracted. End your lesson with him wanting to do more.

Pulled my original post to offer something more constructive "Troops".
I agree with Steve in that too much retrieving can sour the pup. Like Steve said, leave him looking for more.
I'd take him afield to experience the world there-in, start with some basic handling skills, allow him to chase some pigeons, teach him to "come" when asked and "here" (which is not "come") but is used sparingly to redirect a bad or misguided cast. At 6 months pups are such a blast and are like sponges for learning. Do not waste this formative time in a pup's life and above all, keep it fun! There is SO much you can do. As suggested, pick a program and navigate the process to your best ability.

I agree with all the above. I'll add that for a total beginner I would suggest getting some help from a quality trainer or mentor. At the least get a set of videos so you can see what they are telling you to do. Learning to read dogs takes a while. And right when you think you have it you will run into a dog that you don't read correctly. My white shorthair was way to smart, independent, and a few other things. I just didn't know what I had at first. Looking back I would have done things differently but just didn't understand what I had. So you never stop learning. Perfect start, perfect finish isn't a bad way to start learning. He shows you different types of personalities and you can watch the pups and how they react. I don't start them on a collar as quick as he does but generally those dvd's are pretty good. You need access to pigeons though.

I should have added, use strong pigeons that the dog won't catch. If your dog has the genetics, he doesn't need to catch birds to elevate his prey drive or his confidence.
While errantly catching a bird on rare occasion is not a BIG deal, it is best if he never or rarely does catch birds once he is working in the field. The time for him to get a bird in his mouth will come, if he plays by the rules. There is no need to un-train a dog and then make a huge chore out of retraining him.
I do let my young pups play with birds - I re-iterate " young pups" starting as young as 6 weeks of age.
Great point made by Greg! I had a SUPER mentor which went a long way towards shortening my learning curve.