Almost done.

[vaturkey]

Annie has been with her trainer for 10 weeks now. 2 weeks left. Getting Full Broke and also Force Fetch training. She is doing fine. Miss the little thing, but this is the right way to move things forward. She is just shy of 2.5 years old.

Back in the old days I would have done all of this myself, but lack of a training area and the required birds made it impossible to fulfill her full potential.

Knock on wood She should be in good form for a trip to Michigan in late October, followed up with a trip to Nebraska in November.

[Jeff S]

She looks good Tom. Happy hunting.

[Kimber06]

I know the feeling, Tom. I have zero experience in dog training and just got my first setter pup last spring. With no training I hunted her bonus year (last fall, seven months when season started) on stocked pheasants at my club. She did OK, no problems with the gun, or finding birds. But no discipline as far as holding points or not chasing after flushed birds.
I really want to hunt her on grouse and woodcock, so this spring I sent her to a trainer in Maine for 5 weeks. She got some contacts with grouse and woodcock and a little training on steadiness, but I wasn't happy with the experience. So, I have changed trainers and next month she goes to New Hampshire for six weeks of additional training. Not enough to get her fully finished, but she will get a bunch more contacts with wild birds, which is what she really needs to progress. Her first hunt this year will be at a great grouse/woodcock property in upstate New York on the second week of October. It should be fun. But the hardest part of all this is sending her away for weeks at a time. She is really a big part of the family now and everyone misses her when she is gone, even my two old Goldens.

[vaturkey]

I know the feeling, Tom. I have zero experience in dog training and just got my first setter pup last spring. With no training I hunted her bonus year (last fall, seven months when season started) on stocked pheasants at my club. She did OK, no problems with the gun, or finding birds. But no discipline as far as holding points or not chasing after flushed birds.
I really want to hunt her on grouse and woodcock, so this spring I sent her to a trainer in Maine for 5 weeks. She got some contacts with grouse and woodcock and a little training on steadiness, but I wasn't happy with the experience. So, I have changed trainers and next month she goes to New Hampshire for six weeks of additional training. Not enough to get her fully finished, but she will get a bunch more contacts with wild birds, which is what she really needs to progress. Her first hunt this year will be at a great grouse/woodcock property in upstate New York on the second week of October. It should be fun. But the hardest part of all this is sending her away for weeks at a time. She is really a big part of the family now and everyone misses her when she is gone, even my two old Goldens.

Annie's first year was an absolute cluster. She is out of field trial stock and her range her first year was 400 yards plus. I frankly spent more time looking for her then hunting. It wasn't much fun. I didn't even take her to Pa looking for stocked pheasants as my trainer thought she would hit a bird at 400 yards and chase it half a mile. Therefore I hunted Woodcock mostly and that was tough as we had no birds to speak of. Accordingly, all she wanted to run the field edges because that was what she was breed to do. Her first year we had a horrible year to hunt and she flash pointed a few Woodcock and then went in and flushed the birds. I didn't even pull the trigger over her that first year other then planted birds.

Last summer she spent several weeks at the trainer and she really dialed her back. Lots of birds and birds close. She tried to teach her to hunt close and it worked. She was a pleasure to hunt over last year and hunted within 150 yards 90 percent of the time. She finally got into enough Woodcock to figure them out and developed some style and was staunch. Learned to pin a running bird etc. and I killed birds over her.

This summer the focus was on getting her to be steady to wing and shot and to work on the retrieve. That's a ton of work for a trainer and it takes time. I asked the trainer how much time when I dropped her off and she said 6 to 10 weeks dependent on the dog. I almost picked her up last week, but I have some medical appointments coming up and a few other things that require my attention and decided to give her 2 more weeks. We will see what we have when I pick her up. FWIW, I can't imagine me sending her off again anywhere for 3 months again. However, at her current age I think everything will stick because of a good trainer and lots of birds and lots of repetition. PS. My checkbook is going to get hammered when I pick her up, but its money well spent.

PS. My hunting buddy bought the Alpha male from the same litter as Annie and gave him away. Dog was uncontrollable without massive doses of electricity. Not biddable and on top of that he fought with the other dogs in the house. He ended up giving him away at 18 months to a field trial fellow who was going to turn him into a kennel dog. Between the fighting and being non biddable it because too much of a frustration for my buddy. Took the right trainer to handle it and my buddy decided it was a bridge too far for him.