My pup is a very high spirited and very happy little dog. We have been worrking on a cc and she is getting better at not chewing on the lead, but for some reason she will not point. I have quail wings and canvas dummies soaked in quail sent and all she wants to do is pick it up and bring it back. If she does not see where I threw it, I can walk her in the direction and she will creep but then full blown sprint and ATTACK (sometimes fliping over the dummy). My question is what can I do, if I can, to nurture the "creep" to hopefully turn that in to a point? I know I am probably reading too much into this but I just wanted you guys opinion.

quit trying to use a canvass dummy and some bottle scent to make the pup point. to point the dog needs to know it cant catch the bird, thats why they point....live birds is the key and will make a huge differance

if i remember right the pup is 7-10wks old right?

Yes she is 10 wks, and I am probably rushing this. What I have read so far is that I need to get her "bird crazy" I got the wings for the point but I got the sent dummy to help her with retrieving. Which I think I am not going to have a problem with. I have plans for building and out side run and setting some live piegons loose indside, and later on using the same birds for live field training on the cc. So dummies = no point for pointing breeds? I would much rather her point than retrieve. What I am asking is how do I nurture the point?

the only thing that will nurture the point is live birds. Once pup figures out that she cant catch them she will point them.

on a dog that young to get her real fired up over the birds I would take some pen raised quail, tie the wings down on one and let it loose in the yard and let pup chase it. She will catch it, just let her play with it and chew on it all she wants. I understand that this goes agianst the whole "catching birds" thing but at this age its a good thing to help build up the prey drive. this is for really young dogs like yours, introducing birds to an older dog is a differant story.

I would only do that once or twice at most. before I set it loose in the yard i might make a real small cage and put the quial in there then set it out and let the pup get use to the smell and see that there is nothing to be afraid of.

piegons are strong birds be carefull with them and a young pup...if you have no access to quail right now i would maybe wait on the bird intro, it wont hurt anything. get her out in the field, let her run and explore.

dont worry, she will be bird crazy....i did not intro birds to mine until he was about 4 months old.

As was already stated, she'll point once she learns that she cannot catch.

Put the wing on a string and attach to flyrod or long pole. Get pup to chase the wing. When she gets too close jerk it to a few feet away. Let the pointing instinct come out before you start trying to get the pup to retrieve. Give the pup a good year of pointing and she may retrieve naturally, without training.

be careful with the wing on the string, it can promote sight pointing and not using the nose

There's lot's of ways to skin a cat. I think the best advise has been offered by GR. Pup need real birds. I would discourage the wing on a string thing for too long. It's a great "parlor trick" to get some pictures of youngsters pointing but it doesn't do much good in the long run. Scent filled dummies only encourages finding and catching, but not pointing. There is lots of schools of thought about age and live birds. My philosophy is start them young, real young. Pen raised quail are great for a young dog and will recall to use over and over. If you dont' have a recall pen, you can make one out of a 55 gallon plastic barrel. I have some pics that I can email that will help you to build one yourself. I'd be happy to share them with you or anyone else on this site. If you can get that built and some quail your ready to go. This is what I do that seems to work well for us. I'll usually take the entire litter of pups and have some quail with me. I'll wave it around as the pups start going crazy trying to grab it, then I'll toss the bird and let the pups chase it. The cover has got to be good enough that they will start chasing but can't catch it. I'll do this many times in the same area, pups will bump and chase, point, bump and chase some more. Usually they lose sight of the bird and come back to me. After a couple weeks of doing this the pups seem to learn that the particular "area" has birds and will start to hunt a bit. I'll then pre-plant this area with 4 or 5 birds and start walking the pups daily. It doesn't take long for them to start venturing out, hunting and finding these birds. They point, bump, chase....they can do no wrong at this point. We just don't want them catching birds. That one facet (not catching), produces pups that point hard, and point early most of the time. You don't need much room to do this type of routine. 1 acre is enough to start a real young dog. We keep free running our pups on quail up until they can almost start catching them, then move to pigeons and more formal work. Like I said, there's more than 1 way to skin a cat...this seems to work for us and seems to produce pups that will be hunting, pointing, and finding birds very young.

Lenny Morales