im getting an english pointer late spring or early summer whenever its ready. im sure once i get him im going to have a ton of questions. but for starters. for training should i pay the money and have a pro train him or would i do a good job by getting videos and books to teach me how to train? any thoughts would be great. thank you

First let me say Congratulations on getting a dog! Second I see you are relatively new here so welcome to the forum, it is a great place to get information you just have to weigh what everyone says and formulate your own opinion.

If you have the patience and desire to train the dog yourself I say go for it. There is nothing better than working hard to train your dog and then seeing the dog perform well in the field. If you are going to do it yourself you should know it is going to be a commitment work with the dog at lease once if not twice a day for about 10 to 15 min. Anything longer and you will see the dog lose interest. Also if you plan on doing some training yourself I suggest you get yourself some books, purchase them as opposed to checking them out from the library or borrowing them from a friend. If you purchase them then you will always have them to refer back to. I would like to suggest the following books:


Gun Dog by Richard A. Wolters a book, written in the earlier 1960's I think, that is IMO the pointing dog training bible. It is still printed and has stood the test of time. I believe it was a revolutionary training book that is in part the basis for most modern training methods when it comes to pointing dogs.

Tarrant Trains Gun Dogs: Humane Way to Get Top Results by Bill Tarrant
Bill Tarrant was a gun dog writer and editor for Field and Stream and very knowledgeable about dog training. Also he wrote several other books of which I have not read, however, I am sure they would be worth ones time to read and purchase as well


Now the two books I have suggested will contradict one another from time to time but the basics are similar. Wolters suggests a more hard hands approach then Tarrant as the title of Tarrant's book suggest. I don't believe in adopting just one training method because your dog will don't always conform and it is good to have other methods to draw from to get your dog to where you want it to be.

Keep us updated and let us know when you get your dog and what you decide to do

I would say it depends on how much time you have to train him. If you have the time, I would buy the books & videos and do it yourself (it's very rewarding!). I trained my first GSP when I was 13 and used videos and books and he turned out to be one helluva dog, BUT I put in A LOT of time in training. I came up with a few alternative, yet creative ways to train. I'll admit, the first time training will be a learning curve for you AND the dog. The second GSP I trained was much much easier b/c I knew what I was doing. I trained my second GSP right before I went off to college 4 years ago. Once again, I had the time.....worked 8-5 and was doing lawns at night, but saved 30-45 minutes before dark to train him. He also turned out to be a magnificent hunter. My advice to anybody that trains their own dog is to "read" the dog.......make sure it's understanding what you want. If it's not, then slow down or even take a step back in the training.....just don't rush it.

It's fun (but frustrating at times) to train your own dog and very fullfilling when people ask if you had it trained and then you can tell them that you trained it yourself!! Good luck!!

Thanks for the tips, im going to pick up some books and some videos soon and start reading. i just cant wait to get him. i know once i do ill be getting on everyones nerves on here cause ill be asking questions everyday. but ill be sure to put pics of him up once i get him.

Hi PA Gobbler,
Like GSPsnFords, I train my first and only bird dog (english setter) when I was around 14. She turned out to be an excellent dog (memories always make things better). But she was very birdy and pointed naturally at an early age. The person who got me the dog had a english pointer. So, when we hunted pointer would range more, setter would range closer and sometimes we would have a brittany who ranged real close. Nasty combination.

Anyways, things you should know something about the breed. They are very birdy. Range can be further than you want but will hold point until you are able to run there. They are not very people oriented (will prolly run past strangers when looking for birds) but you can socialize them early. Stubborn when hunting. You should have an hour a day devoted to running them. Weekends longer. During hunting season, they will hunt all day if you keep them in shape. Also, you need to run them first due to their limitless energy before trainning. Trained correctly, they make excellent bird dogs.

Congrats, nothing like training your own dog and seeing them point for the first time.

PA, good choice.

I agree with PA too. Before I would train, I would let the dogs run around the yard and play a little in order for them to blow some steam off.

With you being a PA guy, I'm guessin' that you will be hunting a lot of Grouse -- Setters are great Grouse dogs.

yes frist the setter was going to be my first choice but i changed my mind. i will be doing more grouse hunting yes.. did i go wrong in changing my mind?? its kinda late now but i am just wondering

So what did you change to?