# training my dog



## hunter_orange13 (Oct 11, 2008)

we just picked up a puppy thats 11 weeks old. i would LOVE to train this dog for my bird dog. i want to do it myself cuz i am only 15 so i don't want to spend a fortune training it. prolly just trained for ducks, pheseants and chukar, maybe some doves here and there. its a border collie. any help? i just got her on tuesday so she isn't all used to us yet


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

While I have known a number of non hunting breed dogs that turned out to be good hunters, most of them were not.
I wish you luck with your goal, and am not trying to discourage you from giving it a shot, Dogs on the whole were domisticated and used as hunters, defenders, _and_ companions for thousands of years, before we started breaking them down into single purpose animals.
It is possible that you might be able to wake up the multiple talents that lie dormant in your dog, but it is just as possible that it is going to want to HERD things, not hunt them, so give it a shot, you have nothing to lose but time. 
Just don't get your hopes too high until you see it acting like a hunter instead of a herder.

One of the best hunting dogs I ever met was an australian shepherd, so it is not impossible.

Good Luck!


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## hunter_orange13 (Oct 11, 2008)

artoxx thats kinda what i thoght but i have a good hunting friend who has a german sheperd. so i was wondering if there are any secrets or something...


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

All I can suggest is take it one step at a time and wait until every lesson is learned til habit before moving on to the next step. Which is a fairly good idea no matter what kind of dog you are training or what you are training it for.

Get the dog interested in birds as soon as you can, play fetch and make it fun for the dog. Use bird wings and/or scent when you do, and hope. You just might end up with the finest pheasant herding dog in the country. :wink: 
And as long as it herds them towards you, you are golden. :mrgreen: 

I can't help but wonder if you were getting a dog anyway, and knew you wanted a hunting companion, why didn't you all just get a hunting breed in the first place?
It isn't like they are hard to find, even if you have to settle for the FREE section of KSL or a wal mart parking lot on most weekends. :?: 

Seems like you shot yourself in the foot, and now you are trying to figure out if it hit your big toe, or just damaged the shoe. :mrgreen: 

I may not be a good dog trainer myself, but I can sure do math, and the less problems you start with, the less likely one of the ones you DO end up having will put an end to the dream.

I sincerely wish you luck in your quest for a decent hunter out of this deal, keep us posted so we can all marvel at your skill, or commiserate with your trouble. :twisted:


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## hunter_orange13 (Oct 11, 2008)

haha well i am really an only hunter in my family. i am addicted and my dad just goes so i can legally be there  so my family wanted a dog. i wanted a lab so bad but we ended up with a collie. now i want to train it. i still want a lab


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## coolgunnings (Sep 8, 2007)

I agree with what artoxx is telling you. But do not give up hope, because of the breed. It is going to take a lot of work to accomplish what you want with this dog. I have a buddy, that has a beagle. Granted that beagles were originaly bred to hunt fur. But this one came from show lines. Well this buddy of mine bought this dog a few months before I bought my most recent retriever. When fall came we decided to go hunting and he wanted to bring his young beagle, I was fine with that. We went grouse hunting. It was slow for both of us because both dogs were young. But we managed a few birds over my retriever. And the beagle was able to start smelling what we were after. Now going into both dogs 4th year of hunting, I have seen this beagle flush grouse, chukars, huns, ptarmigan, and pheasants. So like I said before, DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE! Although you have your work cut out for you, you can accomplish what you want with that dog.


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## GSPonPoint (Sep 24, 2008)

I don't mean to discourage you hunter_orange13 but I also wouldn't want to fill you with a bunch of false hope. The odds are, a Border Collie is not going to amount to much of anything when it comes to being a bird hunter. I've seen dogs that are popular breeds for bird hunting that had little desire to search for birds. With a Border Collie there are no natural instincts in them for such a purpose. Now, it may stumble onto a bird or two by accident but that's about it. 

Now, with that said, to at least have a chance, the dog would need to naturally have the desire to sniff around in search of whatever. If it has that in him/her, then you could try and introduce birds to it. Try and get it real excited about birds. Get a few pigeons. Place a clipped winged pigeon on the ground in front of the dog a see how it reacts. If it tries to catch it then you've got a start. If the desire is there then let it catch it, play with it, whatever. Repeat this several times each day. Tease the dog with a bird, like I said you need to build excitement and drive.

Good Luck


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## hunter_orange13 (Oct 11, 2008)

heres a little update. its been a few months but i have her retrieving already! at first i taught her to sit (that took 5 hours at the most, and she now does it every time. and stays if you say stay (most of the time, but still working on it)) and then i taught her come. my little sister named her mya and it took her the longest time to get "mya come" and "come" so if i whistle and say "mya come" she comes right to you and walks right by your side if you're walking. the other day i shot a duck and she loved it! she was just sniffing it, ears perked and was happy! so i cut off the wings and saved them. i put them on a 2 liter bottle and its full of sand. i tell her to sit, throw it and say go get it. this part took me weeks of working with her everyday for her to learn. she would go get next to it, and come back. but she is starting to bring stuff back! so starting tomorow i am gonna throw in the cap gun. hopefully she'll be ready for next season, but i may take her on a chukar hunt later in the year if she is doing well. and everytime i take her for a walk in the foothills, she spooks birds and jacks. i hope that if i can spend some more time, she can get it good! nothing to loose right? any suggestions? i have never trained a dog before. she is my first


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