i wanted to know what is the earliest to intruduce a dog to birds?? i have a pup weimaraner and want to train her for upland hunting... i know it might be little early to ask on this but im trying to make sure i can make it happen.... all i do have for training is a training quail and pheaseant with scents... i dont have any live/frozen training birds to use.. i can take her to the fields also!! any tips would be great... thanks..

I had Izzy on a wing the day I got her home at 9 weeks old. I had her chasing live birds before she was 12 weeks old.

wow really... ok ... i get my pups shots next week... will et to work... thank you

The sooner the better.

When we have a litter the pups are exposed to quail by 5-6 weeks of age.

My Brit went on his first hunt at 8 or 9 weeks and was pointing and retrieving at 16 weeks. Let 'em hunt.

That sure is a nice looking dog kindall. How old is it in the picture?

And some dogs do not turn on until latter so be patient but let her be a puppy. A dirty sock does the same thing as a quail wing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol a sock ok she loves my socks.....well i will be gettin her out to the feild then after the 19th for sure....

I think exposure to birds, at a young age does a lot for the owner. I think it's a little over rated for what it does for the pups, but I'm not against it.

It's fun.

a+++

And it is so easy to put to much pressure on a young dog and take the independence and desire away from them.

I agree that getting a young dog on birds does not do too much for the dog and if it is pressured can have adverse effects.

I think it is more important at a young age to get a dog out in the kind of terrain it will be huinting and let it run around and build up its confidence.

ok tex, i found some feilds around post that do have quail runnin round... im going to take my pup out with my labs next weekend.. let em just run around out there...

i dont want to put to much preasure on my pup... thats why im asking alot of questions on this... she will be my first bird do and training.... just want to make sure im doing it right... thanks again everyone

A++++

Gary you will be dealing with blue quail there and they do not like to hold until the covey has been busted a couple of time. Be very careful of rattlesnake and be very careful in introducing the puppy to gun fire.

How does exposing the dog to birds put pressure on the dog?

i was thinking of getting a kids cap gun from te store to help ease to shotguns....

I totally disagree.

http://www.pointingdogjournal.com/explor...noredirect=true

I do not believe it does but when you start pressuring the dog it does and the dog can relate the pressure to the birds. What I was afraid of was that as a newbe he would start expecting the dog 4 months old to be something other than a puppy and pressing it to be and inadvertently cause the dog to associate the pressure to the bird and lose interest in the game. That is kinda what snake proofing is. Applying pressure to a dog in a situation the dog learns the situation and avoids the situation to avoid the pressure.

Personal example
I have a dog that is now 4 years old. She was a July pup and I started letting her run with an old dog in January. The puppy loved to hunt, would find, point, and hold birds, was partially whoa broke. I started applying pressure to honor the other dog, and this was only a couple of instances pressure. The bottom line result is that when she sees another dog on point she blinks the point and comes in behind me and walks there until the birds flush or the other dog releases, then she starts hunting again.

She is a very nice meat dog but was screwed up by her trainer(me) and would never be a dog I could run in NSTRA. The nice thing about this situation is she loves to hunt, is rock solid on her birds and is real easy to handle.

In my opinion the younger the dog is the less training pressure you can apply and every dog is different and can react differently to training pressure.

She was around 2 1/2 months old. No pressure on her ever around birds. I just want my young dogs to love birds. At that age if she caught and killed the bird it would have been fine with me.

spot on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I turn a pigeon with flight feathers pulled loose for the pups about once a week. They chase it around and play with it for a while, but being a pup they find something else to chase. They'll come back to it later. It's all fun for them.