what to do
 

I work for the city i live in, and the city i live in has the county dog pound, so i take care of the dogs whenever we have one. well, anyways, this one dogs time was about up,i'm guessing she's just a mut, but its a great dog so i took it home. she's a black and white dog, i'll take a picture of her and put it on here after i get done with this post. maybe someone can tell me what kind they think she is. she's just a pup and her spirits seem to be high, just needs to gain a little weight. but to the point of this post, i'd like to try to turn her somewhat into a pheasant dog, nothing pro, just someone to take with me when i go and help me sniff out hiding birds. I took her with me yesterday when i shot clay pigeons, and she seemed to love it just as much as i do. For a couple of shots she just sat under neath me between my legs. So she isn't gun shy, thats a major plus. Also some pluses, she comes to you whenever u call for her, and when walking around in the field she doesn't get too far away, and when she does just give a whistle and she comes back. Played some fetch with her today, runs out, picks up the toy and brings it back to me. So she may be from the pound, but i think she has possibilities. Well, now to the real point of this post. Whats the first step in training a hunting dog?

RE: what to do
 

here she is

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heres a close up of the head

RE: what to do
 

From the looks of her, I'd say she has some English Pointer in her. The longer legs, spots, and the markings on her head gives it away but they usually have a straight tail without feathering. I don't recall ever seeing a pure bred EP with so much black markings on it's body but I've seen many with the markings on the head only. The angle of the ears seem different too. As to the shape of an EP, think of a beefy greyhound. You should be able to see some ribs and especially some muscles as they are built to run.

For training, I would suggest getting a book. Delmar Smith's method is good. There is a bunch of them, just don't mix methods. I'm using Paul Long's method, it's simple but less rigerous. It's mainly for hunting dogs and not for perfection.

With that and couple of sessions with a professional trainer, you should have a fine gun dog.

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I think you should see if you can get the dog to point. Take a pheasant or quail wing and tie it to the line on a fishing pole. flap it around till the dog gets interested and starts to chase it then jump it away from the dog and then let it land get him going back and forth letting it sit then when he goes to pounce jump it way and let it sit some where else. Keep doing this and maybe he will decide to change his tactics and go on point. I would be interested to find out if he does point for you.

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I borrowed larry muellers book from someone i know, been working with her today. I didn't have a wing, so i used her rope toy instead. Unfortunately she just kept chasing it around and only went on point when i told her no. We've been working on "whoa" today, doesn't quite have it yet but i think she's getting it. Today i tested her nose (following larry's instructions which is dragging a peice of meat through the grass and see if she can follow the trail) she did an excellent job. I layed out a 15-20 ft trail and she gotter pretty easy. I'm looking forward to continueing working with her, I myself am interested to see what i can get out of her. I'm ganna work with her again tomorrow, but then give her monday off cause tuesday morning she's going to get spade ect. Wish me luck.

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check out www.thecheckcord.com go to the archived articles. a very well written and easy to follow step-by-step process for training a bird dog, IMHO. It helped me out a lot.