G.S.P.pup no interest ?

[jwcosti]

Have my 1st G.S.P. female now 8mo's old. did not come from a kennel. early on she seemed to not have much notice of birds around (no interest). Each morn. there is wild quail that flies,walks etc.right in my drive and neghbors place. sometimes she looks at them mostly not though,she'll go play. Her nose is mostly dry. I have taught her to heel, stay come, whoa.The pup is very easy to work with, lots of running energy, as I have to make her stop and focus. (I have taught other animals dogs,horses mostly.) Noise is not an issue, she travels well, loves the field,she retrieves some (soft mouth). She has been on pigeons,some wild quail,a couple pheasant. She will point a couple times during an outing on placed birds, some time with o.k. enthusiasim then on another bird up the field will walk or trot right by it. Earlier she would tremble when a scent came. Not now. I've not scolded her on the birds, bought a couple launchers she ran them over after she made a couple good points early. Is this enough info. for any more exper'. trainers to say this is a phase or should i move her on. Does she need way more wild birds to let her learn the game ?

[kninebirddog]

When I begin puppies in the field ..I let them run explore find a bird let them bump it chase it what ever...
Kinda like a kid when they first get to sit down with a box of crayons...when they are first learning if you are to disciplinarian about the process like getting on the kid for coloring out side of the lines then they loose interest..they well quickly stop coloring
where if you allow them to learn the slowly work in side the lines and make it fun you can soon have another artist on your hands

I can only go by what you have posted but it sounds like this pup may fall under one or 2 categories
the first I would almost say to much handle for the age

second the pup may not be from a well thought out breeding and may be a bit low on natural drive

So with that said

I would let the pup learn and explore the field let him find some good flyers and Build up the drive don't say a word if the pup chases let them learn the field is fun and exciting

once you have done that and the pup is looking forward to the field

Then come with a check cord work the pup in front of you in quartering patterns you will first have to start making zig zags in a 10-2 pattern and again i will bet at first the dog is going to want to stick by your side..do not get upset just get a good start make it fun

also make sure your session are with in the dogs attention span .....if the dog is excited working one bird to start then stop at that bird

it is not about how much time you spend more important is the quality of the time spent If every time you go out it is fun and great things happen even if it is only a couple minutes Stop there don't push it to failure

put the bird close when starting..I see many people put the birds to far out and by the time they get to where the bird is the young dog has lost the attention span it had

So back up I would work at building up the drive and not worry about other stuff until that drive is there..hard to steer a parked car

good luck