mustad

Hi,

My 6 month old PP has shown some good progress so far this season. He's at the point now where he will rarely miss a bird, meaning he will find every bird. It's been a good 3 weeks since I've seen a bird flush behind him. Also, every bird that he finds he will point. The problem comes in that one of two things will happen after he goes on point.

1. The bird will flush within 5 or 6 seconds. (He will hold point about that long).
2. If the bird doesn't flush, the pup will move closer, jump, run; thereby flushing the bird.

He has been ranging between 5 and 150 yards from me. It has happened where he will point a bird close enough to me that I can get in a position to take the bird, but most of the time I will only see it for a split second or not at all (just hear the wings).

To boot, yesterday, he put a great point on a grouse, that I was able to hit. I clipped the wing and the bird fell. Once on the ground, the bird tried to run away, but my pup caught up to him, grabbed him, killed the bird and brought it back to me. After that, he was convinced he could catch any grouse in the woods.

The pup has a tremendous amount of drive and is very hard headed. To date, I have done no training in the field. Home work only with whoa, sit, no, down, fetch (but all play training, no negative reinforcement except maybe with no or down).

Do you think it is time for me to start some more serious work with him or should I give him the season to work out some issues, further reinforce and egrain his love for hunting so that I can't kill it later on?

It's been really frustrating the last few times out, where I know he's getting into birds; I know he's pointing them, and they are flushing, and if I were in a position, we would be filling out bag. But instead, I hear him go on point, hear the bird flush, and hear my dog take chase after the bird. Arghhh!!!

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,