10-day beginner dog courseBird and Gun Intro

This course is a prerequisite to our other hunting dog training courses.

Bird and Gun Intro is a ten day beginner course designed to give your dog a positive exposure to live birds and proper gun exposure. This a crucial step to starting a confident gun dog. We will be developing this through a progression of steps to create a positive bird and gun association. There is no formal obedience done during this program, this is all positive association. The ideal age to start Bird and Gun Intro is 6 months, but it can be done any time after this assuming there hasn’t been any gun exposure.

The quantity and kind of bird used for this training are important. We start off with pigeons, but are already using Chukar on Day 2 of training. Initially the birds are inhibited from flying and by the end of the Bird and Gun Intro, the birds are flushing, flying and being shot with a shot gun. We also think it is important to have a variety of cover for this training program. Your puppy will start out in our puppy field where the cover is light. We believe it’s important to create a positive experience whenever possible. Throughout the training, the fields are varied from light to heavy cover. At the end of the program you will see how your puppy is using its nose in the field to find the birds and how it handles the flush and shotgun.