Natural pointing pups and proper introduction

This morning when working dogs I noticed something that I’ve known for a long time but haven’t shared much. When a young dog is a ‘natural pointer’ it is not necessarily the best thing. Huh?

You see, a young dog that freezes on scent or sight that has never been properly introduced to flushing birds and other natural sounds associated with the flush like the cackle of a pheasant or manmade sounds like the sound of the launcher or the sound of a gun, may just be frightened in an unintentional way that can set back training.

Here are some examples:………..

Pup points first ever cock pheasant and the thunderous clap of the wings and loud cackle makes pup turn tail and run.

Pup points a bird in a launcher for the first time and the sound of the launcher frightens him.

Pup points first wild bird but the grass is tall and he doesn’t see the bird. Then, a loud gun is shot and pup doesn’t put together that the scent = bird in flight = shot to kill and thus pup begins to be scared around the gun.

What I want the amateur trainers to take from this is that ‘natural’ doesn’t mean you bypass common sense. Introduce pup properly every step of the way and resist temptation to take your natural pointer, that has never been exposed properly to anything other than a planted pigeon, out on a hunt where things could go wrong. Proper step by step training is still the way to go. Just because you had another dog that was ok or your buddy had ‘willie the wonder dog’ doesn’t mean that yours is the same.

Enjoy your pup! Be fun and your pup will have fun ™….Dave Jones