[quote=bill oxner]I've had a few PMs asking about my training method. I did this on another forum, so I still have the pictures in my album, so here goes;
All bird dogs point. The breaking process teaches them to hold point. There are two ways to teach a dog to hold point, with dozens of variations. The first way is to let the birds train the pups. That generally involves launchers and pigeons, with some whoa breaking mixed in. It's very effective. I use the Delmar Smith method, substituting the e-collar for the bump under the chin. My dogs are completely whoa broke before I put them on birds. I use pen raised quail, because I can be done with them for the summer. I like to start in August, and finish in time for hunting season.
I start off on the whoa post. I introduce the e-collar the same day, that I introduce the whos post. Here's cracker on her first day with the whoa post;
I keep them on the whoa post only until I can get out in front of them, and then go to the yard for heel and whoa. Cracker tended to sit, so I had to start with the suitcase hitch. I go from the yard to longer walks. The pup has pretty well gotten it down after three weeks.
I then go from the walks to whoa in the field. Here's Cracker in the field in the field, before I put her on birds. This whole process has taken me around four weeks.
This is her first day on birds. I train alone, so I had to plant the bird, where I could wrap the CC around a bush. Notice the slack CC.
I kept her on the CC for three training days. She only went around on the bird one time. Here she is after 9 training flushes.
I started walking some of the birds out after a few days. Here you go;
A little side note. My birds were not recalling all that well, so I used Cookie to point them while I netted them;
A lot depends on the pup, and you have to adjust for each pup. Cracker has never taken out a single pointed bird or covey.
