Comments on: More on ‘age range expectations’ ™

By: Bpeacher79

Bpeacher79 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:42:27 +0000

Dave,
Your truthfulness and “tell it like it is” continues to WOW me, as if you need my affermation. Everybody that talks to me wants to know the “fast track” way to a great companion bird dog. There is no such thing. There is no substitute for patience and time. You are welcome at my campfire any time.

Bob

By: Trent

Trent — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:08:19 +0000

The lightbulb really does “click on” when they hit about 4, I was amazed at the difference in my dog this season. Hunter hunted without any real need for correction, and was a pro on running pheasants. He never ranged too far or worked too close, and always checked in with me every once in awhile. He learned to corral the runners and work cover effectively and methodically.

By: psubowhunter

psubowhunter — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:42:06 +0000

Hi Dave

I can HIGHLY attest to Dave comments above my Britt Sophie was a phase one grad from Dave, and I took over when she was about 14 months old. The first year went good and we mostly hit the yard cammands till I felt she was solid before hunting her that first fall. Dave comments above EXACTLY mirror my experence with Sophie who is just now4 years old and one DANG FINE hunting companion anybody would be proud to hunt over.

I am lucky in a way as I have access to birds year round as I keep a quail recall pen on a small farm behind me and we hunt hard from October to March each year on my favorite preserve in central PA and in the few grouse coverts I still know about for wild birds . Sophie has had 100’s of birds shot over her in our 3 years together and each year she’’s progress. Along the way we both made mistakes but the payoff is worth it.

We make one heck of a team now in the field and are at the point where I swear we read each other minds at time, and this spring and summer I’ll keep her in bird shape on my quail and we’ll be READY TO GO next fall. Sophie’s now at the point where I am spoiled hunting over her and it’s only going to get better. All that time the first two years had paid me back big time with a really NICE HUNTING DOG.

Best advice I can give is be patient with your Bitt. I can remember some days when like Dave says Sophie was in the terrible twos and I thought she was never going to get it right.