POINTING DOG POINTERS: Our Bird Dog Bible

May 2022

What is the best method to use in developing your pointing dog?

It’s often confusing to sort through all the available information out there today. In this age of instant information, gratification, and electronic devices that can monitor our blood sugar, weight issues, and sleep apnea, plus show us how to do anything via YouTube videos – it’s surprising that there’s not an app for bird dog training (maybe there is)!

We have many good pointing dog training books lining our bookshelves, but the one we call our “Bird Dog Bible” is Wing and Shot by Robert G. Wehle, published in 1964. Though there have been advances in various methods of pointing dog training over the years, basing our own program on Wing and Shot has never failed us. We use it as our blueprint, always tailoring or tweaking to the individual pup’s needs. Sometimes, the old things are still the best.

Let’s take some pages from our “Bird Dog Bible” and relate them to our own program of development.

 

Pup’s First Week at Home is Key

Pup is leaving a familiar environment for a new and strange one and it will be your job to make this transition as easy as possible for him. As Wehle says in Wing and Shot, “The first week you have the pup may be the most important week in his entire training period … Spend as much time as you can getting acquainted and protect him from anything that may frighten him, such as strange dogs, loud noises, over-enthusiastic children, slippery floors, excitement or lonesomeness.” We wholeheartedly agree with Wehle!

Pups are impressionable at this young age, so it’s your job to ensure that his new experiences are positive. His first ride home in a vehicle should be as pleasant and gentle as you can make it. Likewise, his introduction to his new home and family should be low key and make him feel secure and safe. Lots of reassurance and petting combined with sweet talk will soon have pup looking to you for affection, stability, and direction. Before you know it, he’ll think you are the greatest!

Once your pup has become acclimated to his new home and housebreaking routine, gradually get him used to wearing a properly fitted flat collar. Soon, you can add a light line to the collar when you are outside. He may fight this a bit and try to lead you around instead of vice versa. This is good – we want him to be curious and develop confidence. As he learns to respond to his name and to associate your excursions together with fun and adventure, you can take him to field areas with low cover that are easy for him to negotiate. While dragging the light checkcord for control, if needed, he can explore new puppy horizons.

 

Have an Objective and a Training Plan

For us, our objective is to develop a pup into a mature, classy shooting dog – one that handles kindly, hunts and finds birds, points with intensity, is broke to the gun, and possibly retrieves – and does it all with enthusiasm. To achieve this, we need a plan – a program – that we know will work. This program may be slightly different for each pup depending on the pup’s temperament and ability, but the underlying basics will remain the same.

Wehle says, “So often new dog owners have no planned program for their dog, and just blunder along aimlessly without an organized pattern … The program described in this book … has been worked out carefully over many years of training …” Wehle urges the reader to commit the training program to memory so that he will always know at what stage he and his pup are, and know what he will do next with his pup.

Your training plan does not have to be complex. In fact, your “outline” should be as simple as possible, based on your future objectives. But – except for the basic puppy stuff described above – all good pointing dog programs should begin with bird and field experience before anything else.

 

Introduce Field and Bird Work

Wehle started each of his youngsters out in “bird country” and advised, “Try not to run him on the same area too frequently.” He varied the fields often to give the pup fresh and different terrain. Unfortunately, in this day and age, most of us don’t have access to different areas of the countryside, especially areas inhabited by wild birds, in which to run our pups. And though working your dog on wild birds is certainly the best for teaching him everything he eventually needs to know, rest assured that you can start your pup out just fine on pen raised quail and pigeons. You can then graduate to game preserves, where you’ll add chukars and pheasants to the mix when pup is ready, and also work him in different terrain on the preserves as well.

Like Wehle, we know it’s important that our pup has some variety in his training fields, so that he learns that there are birdy objectives in many different areas, not just his special training area. When he’s young and just learning, it’s key that he finds birds every time he gets out, to whet his enthusiasm and bring out his abilities.

Wehle says, “It is best to work a young dog alone until he has learned to hunt … When he first smells the scent of birds, chances are he will merely show signs of making game by putting his head down, slowing his gait and wagging his tail furiously … When the bird flies, he will either rear back in amazement or chase after the bird. In either case, pay no attention to him. If he did rear back, don’t worry about it.”

Likewise, we work our pups individually. We start our pup out in the field on quail, usually hobbled in initial introductions so that these little gamebirds can’t whir up in flight and scare the pup. As dog trainers, we’ve encountered many breeds of pointing dogs with varying degrees of ability and drive. Some young, timid pups will turn and run away from the noisy flight of a quail or pigeon, and then they won’t be eager to hunt again. So – we don’t take chances and we try to make sure that our pup’s introduction to birds will excite and motivate him.

“After a few more contacts with birds, he will start chasing after them when they fly,” says Wehle. “This is a very important part of his development. For some time now, he should be allowed to do nothing but hunt and find game.” This is also an important part of our program – to let the pup find, flush, and chase birds. We want his eyes to bug out with enthusiasm and we want him to give chase with gusto! But we don’t want the pup to catch the bird if at all possible.

 

What About Pointing?

Early on, it’s all right for a pup to catch a poor flying quail or pigeon – in fact, this can really motivate a pup that is still unsure of himself. But once he learns to hunt, scent, and find birds – we don’t let him catch birds when he gives chase. Soon he will become more cautious when he makes bird scent and will often begin to point or flash point. Some pups will point right away, first time out – others may hunt with enthusiasm and not point for quite some time. Don’t worry! At this stage in your training program you are just getting your pup bird crazy.

Once your pup is pointing, you can let him drag a light checkcord and gently restrain him when he goes on point. A quiet word of sweet talk and praise is sufficient, as Wehle recommends, although we often keep silent at this point so as not to distract our pup. Having a helper in the field now makes training easier. Let pup point for a bit while your helper gently restrains him. Then you can flush the bird as your helper releases the pup for a chase.

We want our field and bird sessions to be lots of fun for our pup. We always quit while we’re ahead. We end our session when pup has been successful at finding, pointing, and chasing the bird and is ready for more. Wehle maintains: “Every time you give him a workout see that he enjoys it. Never work him to the point where he shows sign of fatigue or of losing interest in the hunt even if it involves putting a lead on him and walking him in.”

Though we use Wing and Shot as our Bible, we’ve had to modify our program as professional dog trainers. We’ve tried different approaches to getting certain pups birdy and always kept the individuality of each pup foremost in our program. Though we’re fairly sure things might have been easier if they were all Elhew pups, we wouldn’t exchange all the great experiences we’ve had with the many pointing breeds we’ve trained and learned from. Bottom line in these pages from our Bible:

Get that pup bird crazy and enthusiastic as the first part of your training program!

 

Pointing Dog Pointers features monthly training tips by Bob and Jody Iler, who operated Green Valley Kennels in Dubuque, Iowa, training pointing dogs for 50 years. Bob and Jody have written many articles for The Pointing Dog Journal.