I have a 1+1/2 yr old Brit, neutered, and do not bird hunt, as of yet. i am looking for some insight on how to or where to take him to start training. Have been through obedience training, and some field work with the electronic collar, he listens to me pretty well with or without the collar at several yards (20-50)

How do I go about training him. The guy that i bought him from hunts my brit's mother but does not have the time to train my dog.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

I would suggest getting a video. There are a couple of really good ones out there that go from birth to seasoned. I used a book that worked pretty well but I wouldnt recomend it. It was kind of outdated.

I also have heard that training a Brit can be very frustraiting. Im not sure if there is anything that you would do differently for a brit compared to a lab.

Call Cindy's Critter Camp in Maryville and ask to speak with John. He is their certified dog trainer and is excellent. He does field training along with obedience training.
http://www.cindyscrittercamp.com/Training.asp

John's site: http://www.animal-specialties.com/about_us.asp
- note in the about section: Wing and shot, and shoot to retrieve competition

Thanks,

I did John's obedience training and his field training which was taking the dog off leash on his 10 acres to about 200-300 yards and calling him back to me. I just wanted to see what other training aids / assistance might be out there before shelling out a lot more $$$ to see him trained on actual bird hunting.

Walter Richards I beleive is the authors name, the book is gun dog it is older but it works

The most important thing is the "whoa" command....your dog needs to do this before putting him on any birds.....you can do this daily for about a week and the dog will get it...(but you will have to reinforce in time)..How I have done it is with a helper or will a pole in the yard.....with the helper put a 20 foot check cord on the dog and have the helper stand 25 foot or so away call the dog to you and when he gets close hold your hand up in a stop fashion and say "whoa" the helper should stop the dog with the check cord when you say it.......without a helper use a pole in your yard, kids swing, light pole or drive one in the ground..wrap the check cord around it and have the end in your hand and call the dog to you when you say whoa stop the dog by pulling on the cord......doing this for about 15-20 min a day for about a week the dog should do it without the pull of the check cord. test him without the check cord and call him and hold you hand up and say whoa.....then you can move to a rod and wing....get a bird wing..quail, pheasant, pigeon, whatever and tie it to the end of a fishing pole with about 4-5 foot of string....move it around the dog and get him really excited...DO NOT LET HIM CATCH IT.......then run it on the ground and stop it and intstruct whoa...if he goes in...yank it away and keep it in the air....do this until he stops on the whoa......this is a great game the dog really enjoys it...as you can tell I love working with dogs...let me know if I can answer any questions...

Thanks for the reply ToddS!

I will start this with him as soon as I can.

Big Pappy - I will search for the book, Thanks!

Walter Richards I beleive is the authors name, the book is gun dog it is older but it works

I think the authors name is Richard Wolters, the book is Gun Dog and that is what I started with 9 years ago with my oldest Brit. After that book I learned the dog trained me better than I did him, basically I worked with him on holding, and obedience calls and he taught me about the birds and what he can do. Since then I work on obedience and let the dog do the bird thing on his/her own, more or less as long as they don't flush the birds when they find them and as long as they bring them back to me on retrieve and come when called they are free to hunt.

As a sponsor I will say come down to Muddy River Shooting Preserve in Wolf Lake to train your dog, but there are preserves in your area and while costly you can keep birds in front of your dog and that is what is needed. Good luck.

You might want to look up Rick Smith Seminar Forum on the internet or teamhuntsmith.com. they use the silent command system.