Help with german shorthair

[ATM]

Was wondering if anyone could suggest a good place to have a GSP trained--Dog is 5 months old have purchased a few books as a guide but would like to have a professional introduce him to guns and birds--also was wondering as this is my first dog ever where I should be at the 5 month stage--have basic commands such as sit,stay, here, down but am new to this so I relly don't know what stage in the training I should be at this point.
ATM

[chunkytrout]

Sounds like your off to a good start however, be very careful in choosing a trainer. I've seen good dogs come back bad. Remember, the key is having the dog want to please you, not having total control over the dog like an R/C car. Most reputable books will work fine. Just take it all in small steps and when the dog loses interest, just stop for a while. Then pick up where you left off. Nothing retards learning like boredom. I personally cant recomend a hunting trainer but I'm sure someone here can. Good Luck and Good Hunting next season.

[Top Gun]

I have a lab that is just finishing up a 10 week program for upland hunting with Dale Westerberg at Blaine Kennels. I think he has a terrific program and he works with all hunting breeds. The dog must be at least 6 mo. old to start his program. He introduces the dog to guns, birds, e-collar, he goes through a forced retrieve program, teaches steadyness and works in the field on quartering and finding birds.
Dale has a HSOforum with an address that uses the name of his business that I gave above without a space or you can find him in the phone book.
There are other good trainers around and I'm sure you will get other recomendations. You can do this all yourself but it does take a consistent time commitment to do a good job.
Good Luck!

[Guest]

Sounds like your off to a great start!

GSP really are a pretty easy dog to train. They point on there own, you just have to spend alot of time with him in the field.

--Getting him to retreive we used a wing on a dummy. GSPs are a very good retreivers even in the water.

-- And he pointed right away when he was a pup, we just hid a pigion in the weeds a few times and buster caught right on.

--Getting him used to a gun, when he was a pup my dad would bring him out to our farm and shoot a 22. Right after he shot the gun he would pet the dog get him pumped up! After a while gun shots didnt even make him flinch.

Another good thing to teach your dog is the word HEN they pick up on that in a hurry with a shock collar, a few light taps 3 or 4 times and you shoundnt have to worry about that again. As soon as you yell hen my dog turns right around and starts hunting again.

Good luck