As it says in the Knutson book, you should introduce your dog to flyaways somewhere around 4 months of age. Flyaways are just that -- they fly away (that' s why I suggested either Chukars that will recall or carded pigeons that you (not the dog) can recover. You won' t shoot any birds until later on (when you get back into pointer training) and only after the dog has pointed -- if the dog busts the bird,you don' t shoot it.

There is nothing wrong with alternating training with flyaways and retrieves. Flyaways every other day (or so) and frozen bird retrieves on the alternate days for about three or four weeks. You can certainy be using bumpers instead of birds on some of those retriever days as well. Just don' t mix frozen birds and bumpers in the same session.

And as I mentined, keep an eye on your dog' s mouth -- it' s going to be teething before long.

Training is a progression - follow your training book page by page, chapter by chapter.