new at training, needed advice about my britt. and getting him to hunt quail
 

im new to brid hunting i know a little but not enough. just got a britt he is about 6 months, what should i start doing now in order to get my dog ready to hunt?

RE: new at training, needed advice about my britt. and getting him to hunt quail
 

Get you a bird wing on a pole let him point in but not catch it (this builds his prey drive). I usually have my pointers on birds by 6 months, but if you are just starting with him now I'd start with a wing for acouple weeks. Get you a training book and follow it.

RE: new at training, needed advice about my britt. and getting him to hunt quail
 

Get him out in the field as much as possible, & make it fun! Save the "training" for the yard & make the field "the happiest place on earth"! In a couple of months, you are gonna want to start to introduce him to birds. If there is a NAVHDA club in your area, go to one of their training days & ask a ton of questions.

RE: new at training, needed advice about my britt. and getting him to hunt quail
 

Is he a house pet or is he penned in the yard?

RE: new at training, needed advice about my britt. and getting him to hunt quail
 

in addition to the help stated above,
Condition him to loud sounds. this can be done by banging a large spoon on the bottom of a steel pot,
Only do this 1 time a day, and only when he is feeding. Start a room or 2 away. have some one watch him, bang the pot with the spoon, he will jump. like I said 1 time per day!!!, he should stop jumping at the sound in a few days, mine took 5, some take 10. when he stops jumping move closer and start all over again, 1 TIME per day!!
eventally you will be able to stand over him whiule hes eating, bang the pot, and he wont jump.
this is the best training any one can give a younger dog, hunting dog or not.
My britt is now 10 years old. since i trained her like this, she will sit on the porch with me during the nastiest thunder storms, and everytime the thunder hits, she runs out into the yard to fetch the bird she thinks was just shot. after i sound conditioned her, i took a pheasant wing and tail, rubber banned them together, and would thro them as hi and far as i could while shooting at them with a cheap cap gun that shoots the plastic caps.
This worked very well for me. i wanted a couch potato during the week, and a hunting dog on the weekends.
I did the wing on a string also, I never let her catch the wing on the string, I did hide wings in leaves and tall grass when she wasnt looking, and she alway gave them back. Rember to make traing fun, and to love your dog like its one of your kids. do not let your children manhandle, play tug of war, or make the dog growl when playing with them. Take your britt everywhere you can where there are kids. baseball games, soccor games, fishing contests, ect. this way he willknow kids are not to be feared.
Good luck, hope this helps.
Roland

RE: new at training, needed advice about my britt. and getting him to hunt quail
 

Vince, was curious if you are a Western Illinois member (NAVHDA). Im in Central IL in the Spoonriver chapter. Id love the opportunity to come train on some new terrain a couple weekend training days and meet some new members.

RE: new at training, needed advice about my britt. and getting him to hunt quail
 

I am not a member, I only attended one training day @ Seneca Hunt Club. I couldn't commit the time to the club. I know the folks in that chapter are good people & would welcome a stranger. You can check the website for their schedule...
http://www.illinoisnavhda.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

RE: new at training, needed advice about my britt. and getting him to hunt quail
 

I had alot of success with building a small pen and keeping 3 or 4 quail in it. I placed the pen on stilts above the reach of the dogs. That in itself did way more for increasing their bird drive than anything else. Plus it is something that will direct their attention when beginning your whoa breaking in the yard. I use a piece of plastic conduit pipe 1" diam. with a pvc cap on one end and an eye bolt screwed into the end of it which a carabiner can be attached to tether the dog. Placing the pipe on the dog gives you more control than a leash or cord because it is rigid allowing you to move in front of the dog and keeping him in place.

I agree with the bird on a string comment. Or it would be good to put a bird in a pen to hear its wings beat - that always drives my dog crazy. Always helps to have people to train with as well. Find a good group like NAVHDA

This is an older thread

Forget about the pan banging nonsense. When you want to get your dog ready for gunfire start small with a .22 blank about 20 yards away after the pup's nose is full of bird. Once the dog shows more interest in the bird than the gunfire, move closer until you are finally shooting over the dog. Then start all over again with a shotgun shell with a primer only. Don't rush it, plant 2 or three birds each time and then increase until the dog is only interested in the bird and ignores the noise. You want a hunting dog to ignore gunfire, r look forward to it when they are hunting, gun fire has nothing to do with beating on a dog food pan.

Not sure banging a pan is nonsense, what is wrong with trying to condition a dog to loud, sudden noises? I've trained 2 dogs, neither was gun shy (or scared of firecrackers, thunder, etc.). The advice I was given was fire a cap gun (not in the pup's face) whenever you feed them, let them associate the sound of a loud pop with something they enjoy (food). But I agree the rest of your suggestion makes good sense.

Uncle Nicky, I have trained quite a few dogs, labs and setters and my comment on the banging of pans is because you want your pup to associate gunfire to birds, not meal time. I have seen people who have done the pan banging bit, then took their pup out and fired a shotgun when the pup wasn't looking and scared the bejesus of of the pup. Acclimating the pup to gunfire takes time and you want the pup to associate gunfire with pleasure so you should never shoot unless the pups nose if full of bird scent in my opinion which has served me well. Banging a food pan may be noise, but you aren't training your dog to find kibble. I had had a dog that hated fireworks and one that hated thunder, but a gun shot got them excited, not scared because they were acclimated to gunfire. I am certainly no a dog training pro, not even close but I have seen too many people take advice from others as good intentioned as it may have been and screwed up a perfectly good pup. What I have said is what I learned for professional dog trainers and I have never had a problem.

I'm no pro either, just a guy who likes to hunt turkeys with a dog. I believe the whole idea of banging pots and shooting a cap gun at meal time is supposed to be done when they are fairly young, and obviously there is whole other protocol involved when you take the dog outside and train it on birds and acclimate it to gun fire (around 6 months). It's more of a "build up" to the actual process of field training. It's worked fine for me, and was suggested by "real" trainers, so if it does no harm and probably some good, why not?

everytime you go out to the field give the dog smell and taste of game .eventually he will start to get the instincts

I've heard britts are real temperamental and if you upset them, they're no good for a while because they're real sensitive. I haven't personally owned one so it could be hear say but I'd wonder how they'd do bird hunting. Anyone else know about this? :fighting0007: