Puppy Intro

I feel it is important to start early. I like to start introducing puppies to birds as early as 10 weeks old. This age is not a set in stone date that bird introduction must be instituted. However, the earlier in your pups life the better and should be the first thing considered to be done with a professional trainer. When introducing birds, I will plant/ liberate bobwhite quail or other birds (2-3 birds per session) in a relatively close distance from each other. Puppies are hunted directly to the game on a check cord (rope) and encouraged to find and point the birds. Pointing is a natural reaction that occurs when a dog encounters prey and can only be encouraged, not trained (it has to be bred into the dog, and a good breeding program should put great emphasis on desire to point game staunchly).

In the early sessions of bird introduction, the birds are flushed and allowed to fly away without any gunfire. Young pups are allowed to reasonably chase birds in flight which helps build prey drive. Once the pup has been through a handful of sessions finding birds and ideally chasing the game in flight, I will start firing low caliber gunfire. The first few shots heard in the pups life will be administered while the pup is chasing, in eye contact of the game and a good distant from the firearm. When it is observed that the pup gives no concerning reaction to the sound, the shots are fired closer to the pup and so on. Once I feel the pup has a positive association with the gunfire, (shows no negative reaction when a gun is fired within 20 feet or so) I will restrain the pup from chasing with the check cord.