SWOSUMike

Grasshopper has said it...a good hunting dog has it in him to the extent that he NEEDS to hunt. It has been called an "involuntary reaction" to stimuli due to genetics. The exact same thing goes for a good squirrel dog. Any dog can bark in the yard at a squirrel, but it is the drive to consistently work a track to a tree, time after time, that matters. My squirrel dog pup is 8 months old, but by about 4 or 5 months old, having only seen maybe one dead squirrel, one live one and a hide, was already naturally looking up in trees. It was an amazing thing that his genetics could give him eyes and even a nose that will check upward like that. He will also bark like nothing you ever saw when you put something up high and he knows it is there. Just today I stuck a tennis ball in a chain link fence at about 8 feet and he lit up the world for me to "shoot it out to 'em." These huntin' dogs are sure fun. I would say you could save a lot of time with hunting dogs by getting one that doesn't need to be trained as much as he just needs to be taken. I am surprised at how my pup is showing things that I could never have taught him. He naturally checks back about every 10 minutes. He is starting to range out well, and he works out tracks on his own already. Good luck again with your pup, and remember that patience is perhaps the best attitude with a pup.