Well, I lost my first dog after 16 years. She was a blue heeler but my wife and I had a Weim that died 4 years ago that was my first hunting buddy. 3 years ago we got a black lab/weim mix that has been my current dove hunting partner and has been great but my wife and son call her theirs. my daughter and I needed one to call one our own so here is KASE. Dad is a yellow lab and mom is a GSP. Intro'd him this week to dove and he went nuts. It is my first male but he is great so far. spent first night in kennel with no problems and already responding to sit, stay, and come. cant wait for dove season!!!!!

Congrats and best wishes!

Thanks IronSpike. I appreciate all your comments so regularly on the forum. I am blessed to have a wonderful wife that stays home for me and my children but that means the pups only get me to train them on the single income. With so much info out there it is hard sometimes but my lab/weim is pretty good although she usually goes as soon as the gun does. My goal this time is for KASE to wait for the command to retrieve. I just finished Wolters gun dog book...any others you would suggest?

CC that is a beautiful pup and I am sure your fixing to have a blast in training. IronSpike is one of the best and always post good info on here. She will lead yuou in the right direction.

"CC IronSpike is one of the best and always post good info on here. She will lead yuou in the right direction."

X2

Thanks, y'all! CC, start NOW to teach your puppy patience. That means learning not to act on impulse, but instead to practice self-denial. That is a 180 degree departure from a dog's nature and why dogs break, bark, chew, bite and get into a mariad of troubles. But you can condition in patience and make it a way of life for your pup, which means you will get a dog that practices self control almost (no dog is perfect) all the time. This is what we do with our JSA pups and (according to others) the hallmark of our dogs - steadiness. Maybe that's because I value it above all other things. To me, it is priority because an unsteady dog is not only a nuisance, but s/he will ruin a good hunt and is a danger to himself & others. Besides, if a dog won't sit and listen patiently, how can you teach it anything?

Your wife and daughter can be part of the patience process, instead of working against you. Tell them not to indulge the puppy. You should all work together to teach puppy patience as a way of life. SIT - for water, for food, to be leashed, before passing thru a door or gate, before loading into a vehicle, before exiting the crate, before chasing after a bumper... sit, SIT, S-I-T! When pup learns that all good things come to those who SIT, you will have achieved the lion's share of your goal for a steady dog.

The rest of the challenge is tackling things like barking and whining. Don't reward unwanted 'verbalizing.' And the crate is your great ally. It denies pup control over his/her world and instead puts that control in your hands. Pup quickly learns to cooperate with the 'keeper of the crate', if s/he is going to have any fun. Make sure again, that the wife & daughter take part in this, as well.

Good luck with the new pup and ENJOY!!!!

Well my pup has been doing great so far as i'm concerned. He is almost 5 months old now and has the sit, stay, come, no commands down pat. He is retrieving very well and not releasing until told. We finally went to the ranch last week and intro'd to water and is a fish and retrieving from water well. Worked on some blind retrieves which he did well with also. I'm keeping the training short or until I see he is losing interest.

Last night I got home after work around midnight and let him out in the yard. He went to do his business but stopped quick and was using his nose hard. Suddenly a bird flew up from the ground and flew a few feet but obviously could not fly well. Kase pounced on him and gave him a quick chomp. It was his first dove!

With dove dummy he is not hard mouthed but he chomped that live dove. He hasn't lost his puppy teeth yet so when is a good time to start the Force Fetch training. When he chomped on it I didn't scold him but just praied him while holding his mouth gently so he didn't chomp anymore. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. It's so rewarding to train your own dog and have forums like this to get others input. Happy hunting!