06/23/2026
Public Service #1
If your pointing dog has not had a hunting season yet, or ample time to mature and experience running, hunting, and pointing wild game birds, regardless of age, and your trainer is talking you into more than a couple months of formal "training". He or She is likely doing you and your dog a disservice.
Patience and Quality are two very key elements to the proper develop of a young pointing dog. To not be in a hurry and to focus on the quality of bird exposure rather than the quantity. It is important to refrain from doing too much hands on, formal "training" prior to a young dog having had the opportunity to run and experience wild game. To have had the opportunity first, to develop the natural instincts it was born with. A foundation is created during this time of growth and experience. This foundation is necessary for a young dog to be able to maneuver it's way through "training", all the while retaining the desired confidence and style. If we start to early, or prior to a young dog having the necessary foundation. We will most certainly take the risk of damaging a dog's style and potentially not achieve the desired outcome.
We have found that the best path to follow, if you plan to spend your hard earned money on professional bird dog training, is as follows... First, 1 month of a good Head Start program. Then 1 solid hunting season. Then Basic and/or Advanced training the following spring or summer.
Our 1 month Head Start Program is for dogs at least 5-6 months old. In this crucial month your dog will be introduced to live birds starting with crippled pigeons during the initial introduction to birds as well as during gun breaking. Then your dog will be turned loose daily in our bird field where we plant quality flight conditioned homing pigeons, in a controlled environment, with the use of automatic releasers. Bird releasers are necessary to simulate how mother nature intends young dogs to interact with wild game. Quite simply when your dog smells a bird, then that bird flies away, your dog's instinct to point, will then begin rising to the surface. It is important to note that during this phase of development your dog will never be restrained by a lead, or check cord. Once your youngster is jumping out of the dog trailer with purpose, attacking the field, finding and pointing birds on his/her own. Then we will put your dog through basic here training and e-collar conditioning. 1 month is ample time to give your dog the opportunity to develop and learn enough to be ready for their first hunting season. So at the end of our 1 month head start class your dog will run, hunt, point birds, be gun broke, here trained, and e-collar conditioned.
Ryan Fortier
