We have been working with this young brittany puppy. He is about seven months old and is starting to hold his points better. Once you get a dog pointing you can introduce the gunfire. We use a blank pistol to simulate gunfire, you can work up to a 12 gauge shotgun as your dog progresses. You can see in the video above that we like to make sure the dog is intent on chasing the bird. Wait until he is a good distance away from the gun and intent on chasing the bird. Then you can fire once or twice. Watch carefully to see if your dog flinches or turns to the noise. You can see Turbo does not even blink. We use a carded pigeon so the bird flies and then eventually drops, simulating a dead bird. You want to have the gunfire before the bird hits so it will be a natural transition when you shoot a real bird for your dog.

After Turbo gets to the downed bird you can see he picks it up and naturally wants to bring it back to us. If you are quick you can head him off and gather him in for some praise. A long lead helps with this so you can grab it if he tries to shy away with his bird. Most young dogs will want to run away so you don’t take their bird. Try not to let this happen. Be sure to pet them and praise them good before you take the bird with your chosen command “Give”or “Release”. If you take the bird right away, they will not enjoy the retrieving as much. I know some trainers that don’t give praise until the bird is released to hand. I don’t get hung up on this with young dogs. They brought the bird back, praise them up big. Simple.

I have found that most pointing dogs have a natural retrieving instinct. The key is to nurture this without burning them out on retrieving. Especially if you have kids helping you train young dogs. I think 3-4 tosses of the dummy or knotted up sock are the maximum. You can tell in the second video below that Lucy is starting to lose interest (her 4th retrieve of this short session). When I see the puppy start to lose interest I put it away for the day and move on to something else.

As your puppy gets a little older and wants to go away from you rather than bring it right back, there are a couple things you can try. One is to throw the dummy in and enclosed area where they can’t go anywhere. The other idea is to use a lead and coax them back in gently with the here command. Both ways have worked for me in the past. But, if you keep the session short (2-3 throws) your puppy will usually be glad to bring it right back. The key is to keep it positive, have fun and try to end on a positive not. End the session before they get bored, that way they will be hungry for more.

Had a good day training with a friend of mine who is working with a 6 month old german shorthair puppy. We planted several hens in some cover at the pheasant farm and just let the dogs work game. I was working with my Lizzy dog, a 7 month old female american brittany from Blueridge Brittany Kennels in Texas. Lizzy did a great job with the challenging cover (thick cat tails) in a marshy area. She dove right into the cover in true britt fashion and found a few birds. When the situations were just right we shot a couple of birds over her. We were careful of the distance between her and the gun fire. And we made sure she was intent on the bird before firing. She marked both birds very nicely and with a little encouragement retrieved them both to hand. The two dogs ended up busting a couple of rooster pheasants as well in some heavy cover.

This is a client dog making a pretty nice water retrieve at the pheasant hunting preserve today. The property has a river running through it and many times the birds flush across the river and sometimes when shot, drop in or on the other side of the river. Shorthairs are usually quite good at water retrieves but as quick as Sadie was to get across to the downed rooster, it took a little coaxing to get her to come back. The water was running pretty swift and very cold with the winter run-off. My Brittany dog Annie was the first one across the river but she didn’t mark the bird and had trouble locating and returned empty handed.

We had a cold snap and a pretty good snow a few days ago that kept me and the dogs from getting out much. Actually, the dogs don’t care about the cold but I try to avoid bird hunting in a white out. The weather warmed up enough on Monday to take a few of our friends out pheasant hunting. Annie performed admirably retrieving several pheasant to hand for me. This big beautiful rooster was the best of her retrieves and she marked it nicely. She had to work efficiently to beat Jared Moss’ shorthairs to the retrieves.

Since she was just 10 weeks old Annie has had a nack for finding stinky smelly things. During our hunting today she brought me a squashed racoon roadkill, a chunk of smelly deer hide and a rotten rabbit’s leg. Each time she brings something I try to praise her for a good find and then get her back to work finding birds. Towards the end of hunt she brought me what appeared to be an old dead hen pheasant from a previous days hunt. When I took it from her, I found that it was still warm with obvious shot marks. Turns out that she had found a wounded bird that some hooligans had shot earlier in the day. They were poaching pheasants on the pheasant farm from a nearby farming road, shooting from their truck. I was pleased that Annie smelled and located this bird and retrieved it to hand.

While enjoying the unseasonably mild weather this week, I took this picture of Annie in the river cooling off and getting a drink. The water is only about six inches deep here, but Annie loves to lie on her belly any chance she gets. She has been a joy to be around and the kids like Annie the best and beg me to let her run free in the yard. This is a pleasant change for me as the kids usually run and scream when I let the shorthairs out for play time. Annie is doing well with her hunting skills and was able to bag a wild chukar while hunting with trainer Chris Colt last weekend.

Went with Chris again last night to work with the dogs a bit. Annie got to work on her retrieving with the dead hen pheasant from yesterday. She did pretty good and finally brought the bird back after a little coaxing. Chris was careful not to snatch the bird away from her until he had heaped on the praise. He likes to let a young pup like Annie hold the bird for a few minutes and enjoy the feel of it.

Chris had his labs and his tennis ball slingshot so I let my german shorthair dogs Jake and Abby out to see how the game is played. They followed the labs after the tennis ball and followed them back when they retrieved. Neither Jake nor Abby had any interest in beating the labs to the ball. They seemed content just to run along side and watch. I was hoping they would get jealous and go after the tennis ball. I’ve heard sometimes that a little competition can help inspire a distracted dog. I’ve still got a lot of hard work ahead of me.