Brittany won,t point
 

My almost 8 mo. old mal britt. started to point @ 13 weeks on a pheasant wing, but now that I' ve had him hunting , he just wanta to flush them. He loves hunting almost more than I do (that' s ALOT) but I can' t get him to settle down enough to take the time to point at a bird. What do I do?[X(]

RE: Brittany won,t point
 

One option is that either his yard work wasn' t complete or he needs more work on the pigeons and quail. There are numerous reasons he could be bumping the birds.

If you didn' t have him staunch on whoa before you progressed into the field, you have a lot of backtracking to do. If you weren' t able to whoa him in the yard, you are going to have a hell of a time trying to whoa him under the pressure of live scent.

If his yard work was okay, then he might need to do more work with pigeons and quail. Are you hunting preserve birds or wild? The wild running birds will have him running like a fool until he catches up and bumps them. Is he hunting for you or himself? These are all things that need to be looked at in determining the cause of your brit' s problem.

Don' t despair- sometimes all he needs is a mile long road session on the way to the cover and a tickle in the neck to remind him who the boss is! You' ll figure it out with a little thought and work. Good luck!

RE: Brittany won,t point
 

Blackliner' s advice is right on the money. However, I am just the opposite...I never teach any of my dogs the command " whoa" until they are pointing and holding wild birds for the flush. The only way to be able to do that is to get them into plenty of wild birds, let them knock and chase until they themselves figure out they can' t catch them. If they are well-bred, they start pointing, and most stop chasing birds after the flush, as well.

If you have the luxury of getting your pup into covey birds (and it doesn' t drive you crazy to not shoot until he does it right), let him knock and chase those a few times...the greater scent put out by several birds may be just what he needs to start pointing reliably. I then take the long off-season to do a complete and thorough job of yard work.

This illustrates perfectly how more than one technique can be used to train a bird dog. Good luck!

RE: Brittany won,t point
 

trkyslayer, both men have good responses that i agree with. Your dog should have had plenty of time afield to chase birds not only to get him " birdy" but to teach him that he needs you to catch the bird. You need to take him back to yard work and reinforce " whoa" . Do this 1000 times if needed untill the dog knows the command and will not move on whoa. Negative, positive rinforcement is reccomended for this. When your pup is sure of the command and ONLY when he understands everything you want him to do, then move on to the next level of training. But never let yard training be forgotten. Try to do 15 to 20 minutes every day of reviewing " whoa,here,alright,whoop,ho" or whatever commands you choose to use. Every day, every time, Be consistent.
When you feel comf. moving on then you will need a bird and a helper. plant the bird (use gloves)and hve your helper step back.Go get your dog and let him start working the training area with his nose. Watch the dog very carefully and read his body language. As he gets into the scent cone of the birds something will let you know. he will get excited and wag his tail, get hyper, get tense, something. You will learn to read your dog by watching. When you see him show signs of scent,STOP him on your leash. Stop him right then and there. Slowly walk up to him, not letting him move, not breaking his concentration, and grab hold of the dogs collar and waist. Your dog may not be pointing, but this is not the time to fix that. He may never have the styled point that you are dreaming of him having if the genetics are not in him. So now you have the dog restrained, have your helper come back into the birdpick him up and throw him into the air, at the same time yelling or firing a gun.Hold onto that dog. If you let him go, then thats what your teaching the dog (to chase the bird).Do this enough and your dog should start to catch on that youre not going to let him chase that bird. As he gets comf. with this you can later start telling him " whoa" (as this might have confused him before) when he gets on scent. Once the dog starts associating stopping" whoing" on scent he may really statr to style up his point as he becomes more confident in himself . Do this as many times as needed untill you think you can do the training without a helper. Just you and your dog. The dog whoing on scent, holding to your flush, shooting and then your retriev, if you decide to impliment this in his training.
Never skip steps, or go on until the dog is confident in understanding what he is supposed to do. Train daily, review often and great luck.kepp us posted on how he comes around.

RE: Brittany won,t point
 

Thanks for the great ideas and I will use my resources to do what I can along those lines. I don' t have access to live birds exept what I find in the wild, which isn' t alot yet. With the few people that raise and release and what the state releases each year the pheasants are on the come-back. I also beleave in " selective harvesting" , even with all other game. I will try to keep you posted on how my britt comes along. thanks again!!!:)

RE: Brittany won,t point
 

I'm in the process of training my GSP. She is just 4 months old and doing well. So far, she comes to the double blast on my whistle, will hold her "sit" until I call "here" or blow the whistle and loves to fetch. I'm having a some what tough time with "heel" as she always wants to pull ahead. I'm currently working on "heel" and "whoa" and she is starting to get both. I've also started to incorporate quail. On the first few birds, I just wanted to see her prey drive which was awesome. So then I started to plant birds for her and she started flash pointing on scent after the 6th bird. Then the next week she made a point on a hidden bird from 20 ft away. It was awesome to see! She eventually flushed the bird but didn't catch it. Now last Sunday, she didn't really point any of the 2 birds I put out for her. She just kind of got birdy and then moved in on the planted birds but I didn't let her catch them. Not sure why she didn't point like the previous week but she is still young. I think the swirling wind and snow had a lot to do with it. Plus she has only worked with 9 birds.