Hi there. I am a rank beginner to the world of hunting, so let me just preface this by saying I'm completely ignorant but very eager to learn a lot. I've got a two year old feist I adopted from the shelter. In the year and a half I've had him, he's learned everything I can throw at him. He shows a strong pointing instinct, especially towards birds, and is overall a very smart, very willing little guy. I've been reading up on bird dog training and am gearing up to start training him as if he were a pointer. I've read some good books on the subject, but most of them assume that the reader is an experienced hunter and that the dog is a six-week-old puppy.

Has anyone here had luck training an older dog? Any advice? Any book recommendations? Thanks a bunch!

Contrary to popular myth, you can train older dogs with pretty much the same methods that you would use on younger pups. The big difference is that the older dog will require much more patience, time, consistency, practice, and patience from the trainer (I listed patience twice on purpose).

The most important thing to train a birddog, in my opinion, is to stay close to the hunter when off-leash in the field. If a birddog ranges too far out, it will flush the birds out of shotgun range. If a dog knows nothing other than to stay close, however, it will at the very least help flush birds within gun range and provide companionship while on the hunt. All of the other more advanced behaviors are a bonus once the dog knows to stay close.

To train a dog to stay close, I make a check cord out of a 50ft piece of rope. I tie a dog clip to one end of the rope, and a carabiner to the other. I think you can buy long check cords at sporting goods and pet supply stores, but I’ve found it cheaper to just buy the pieces and tie them together myself. It is effectively a 50ft dog leash with a carabiner at one end.

I clip the carabiner to my belt loop with the dog clipped to the other end of the rope, this way I can work the rope with both hands and not worry about where the end is. When the dog ranges out the extent of the rope, I give it a tug, give the “come” command, and give lots of praise when it returns. I repeat this extensively while walking a field until the dog learns to consistently stay within 50 feet while covering the field at my walking pace.

Good luck with your feist! If you can keep him close, I know you’ll have a lot of fun bird hunting with him.

Oooh, thanks for the idea! We used to use a check cord on him when he was a bit younger, just to keep him from running off in general. I think I'll re-introduce it when we go in the field so he can learn his range-- and so I can, too.

Right now we're working on retrieving in the house (definitely his weakest skill, but he's learning) and drilling all his regular obedience work- heel (on and off lead) stay, down, sit, and coming when called.

I'm glad you mentioned the check cord for teaching him how to range out. That's really what I'm most confused about in the whole process- I've got a fishing pole, a little quail scent, and some wings, and when I was a kid I taught my terrier how to track, so that part I have covered (my feist is 100% reliable on 'stay', so I'm not worried about teaching him to hold steady to wing and shot; if I tell him to stay and toss a piece of meat across the floor, he waits until I tell him to go get it to scramble after it.) But it's teaching him to get out there and zigzag that has me confused. Thanks!