Larry L wrote:
"Ken Fortenberry" wrote
The new pup is a yellow Lab. I'm going to train her for upland
work first then water retrieving later.

Ken, I don't really have a book suggestion

Mostly deciding what you really want ( in detail ) is the hard part ... the
rest is just common sense and some creativity ( I've trained hundreds and no
two exactly the same way ... the curriculum remains the same, the methods
vary, like all good teaching G)

One thing to ponder

What separates a good hunting dog from a great one ... you've already
(hopefully ) taken care of ... the desire that came from mom and dad ( not
to fuel the $1500 dog wars again, but all dogs are NOT created equal ;-)
The dogs that will grow into one that will challenge the berry vines to
pursue a bird are born with that potential, it's not a man made thing past
the decision of who to breed to whom ... no amount of 'training' wan put
that desire into one when it's lacking.

BUT, what separates the good hunting dog from the useless or worse ... is
discipline ... In other words a dog that comes when called, regardless,
sits when told, regardless, etc etc ... can be great IF he got the right
genes and will be at least good. But one with the right genes, or not,
that doesn't have that control will be a PIA Concentrate early work on
the control, cause if she has the right stuff she'll get out of control easy
when her hunting genes kick in ... in other words, hunting her until you
can't catch here and are one of the guys shouting, "Here, Here, Here you
****ing bitch." and THEN working on control is the wrong order ... start
with control, and as she builds maintain it ... IT will pay off in pleasure.

FWIW, ..... IF you are a serious waterfowler ... the above order is likely
fraught with hazard ... what a dock dog does ( besides the basically
natural ) requires lots of discipline ... . what a pheasant does is mainly
run around doing what he wants g My experience is that a dog refined
to the level of pleasant in a duck blind is easy to make into a controlled
upland dog, whereas the reverse is less true. But, if upland is your major
interest, the dog is a tool, like a fly rod and should be designed for
your main purposes and compromised for lesser ones.

P.S. teaching a dog to sit on a whistle is a great thing ... regardless of
whether you intend to handle ( hand signals ) her. In pheasant hunting
blowing a sit whistle ( if dog understand what 'must' means ;-) is a great
way to slow a dog on a trail down so you can safely keep up without pulling
him off that trail ( as calling him would ) .... whistle sit isn't normally
thought of as standard in upland hunting, but, trust me, it's a great tool
( blow it at flush and before you know it you'll have a sit to flush dog,
too )

Thanks Larry, excellent advice all the way around. Living where I
live I'm necessarily a frequent upland hunter and just an occasional
waterfowler. I can hunt pheasant minutes from my front door, I have
to travel quite a ways to hunt geese and ducks.

Thanks again.

--
Ken Fortenberry