A friend is moving and gave me his 3 yr old (coming on 4 in june) short hair. Super obedient, good minded everything you would want in a dog, but hes not trained to hunt. Anyway my question is Could he be trained now? I'm talking a fully finished dog. Anyone ever done it?

What kind of hunting are you interested in getting your shorthair into?

You don't really train dogs to hunt. Take it where there are some quail and see what it will do.

I think Bill is right but you have be smarter than the dog,so
I have my 3-4 YO GSP in training now by a profesional. He's a shacky so she's going slow. Also the last pro I used almost let him die from blood parrasites caused by ticks. She is confident she can get him settled in and quail hunting. He comes from a hunting line so I'm hopeful. I think you have to try. Even if mine doesn't hunt, he's my buddy so he has a home regaurdless.

Upland birds and dove.


Bill, he shows interest in birds. I believe the want to is there. I meant more in the way of FF, woah breaking etc. the things they wont do unless taught.

You should still be able to train him at this age.

I you are going to get him trained by someone else, most pros will give you a free evaluation to make sure he has the interest you think he has.

If you are going to do it your self, get a good system and stick to it. Bird exposure, Bird exposure and Bird exposure are key.

Good luck to you!

Shorty, my father used to say a good bird dog will mostly train
himself if you will do you job and kill birds over him..Spend a
lot of time praising his job when right and iqnore the rest when
possible..he'll usually correct himself..DD