I've only been dove hunting a few times (mostly unsuccessfully) but I am avid shotgunner (American skeet, sporting clays). I want to get more into bird hunting. Specifically quail, dove, pheasant, and chukkar.

In about 7 weeks I am going to bring home a Brittany pup to double as a bird dog and a family pet. His lineage are all working, hunting dogs, and the breeder is going to take me out hunting and give me some tips on raising the pup.

I want to gun train him, obviously. I've raised a number of puppies (GSDs and Chow Chows) but never for a specific purpose and I stopped at basic obedience. Other than doing some work with pheasant wings and exposing him to gunfire (there is a very nice sporting clays trail that is a moderate hike about 10 mins from my house), I don't know what the best way to go about this is.

I'm sure there are lots of good books on the topic.

Where should I start?

We had pointers when I was growing up. Dad would use a fly rod and a quail wing to teach the young dogs how to "hold" on a bird. Very effective. Pull the wing a foot or slow,,dog moves a foot or so,,,reward with "good boy!" and later a treat. Only about 5-10 minutes to start. They learn fast and like making you happy.

Be careful of gun conditioning, go slow, it's hard to fix gun shy. We had our Springer trained by a pro and he insisted on the gun training no sooner than a year old. I know other people who did it themselves by keeping the pup in the truck with the windows up parked a ways from the skeet field and then slowly move closer and cracking the windows. Again go slow.

I second go slow on the gunshot familiarization. Baby steps. If you can make a step smaller in the process do so. I have a 1.5-year-old Weimaraner. She was much more sensitive to noise than her dad I had for 13 years. His was a fairly quick process. His daughter, not so much. I started letting her run in a large field and I would wait till she got interested in something a distance from me and shoot a bb pistol facing away from her. From there to a pellet rifle, CB .22, .22 shorts, 22 lr, 9mm ar, then a shotgun. All letting her getting distance from me and facing the noisy part of the gun away from her. I continued with one type of gun until she ignored the shots. Probably in the neighborhood of 1000 rounds all total over several months. When I introduced her to birds I used a preserve and did what I did with her dad. Introduced her to quail then got her good and bird crazy. Then waited for an opportunity to knock a bird down without pointing the gun over her. Kept the muzzle away from her the first season and will likely do so the second. Worked slick and ended up with an awesome dog.
I highly recommend you don't let anyone else shoot over her the first two years. Most folks are not avid hunters or shooters and in my experience could give a shit about your dog. They shoot low birds too close and have poor muzzle discipline. Hopefully, if you ignore this last piece of advice you have a much better, and smarter class of friends than I did. I now hunt by myself.

Under _NO_ circumstances do you gun condition a dog at a shooting range.   Never ever.

You get a blank pistol and pop it off after the dog has already been shown to be bird crazy, and then only when the dog is in full chase after birds.  

Taking it to the range is asking for problems only a professional will be able to correct (maybe).


Start with come and whoa when its old enough for basic obedience.
Take the puppy to the field and run it every chance you get.  If there is a place with wild birds so much the better.
If not start looking for a source of training birds.
A good bird dogs is genetics, a handful of basic commands, and a shitload of time in the field and a lot of bird contacts.

I appreciate the tips guys.

My breeder recommended this so I snagged it on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399133151/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also going to read a Richard Wolters book

Interesting. I shoot a lot of sporting clays and its almost rare to see someone not walking a (young) dog on the course on weekends. I've spoken to many people who have done that to desensitize them.

Some dogs it doesn't bother.  They would be fine almost no matter what you do.  If you get a sensitive dog though......

The reason you start with a pop gun while chasing birds is the dog is focused on the bird, and it builds a good association in the dog's mind between gunfire and birds.

I have a brittany that just turned 4. Excellent dog and hunter. Great choice OP

I tried the whole route of cap guns, to blanks to a .410. She was tolerant of the noise, but a few times we had to stop after the first "shot".

Nothing clicked with her until I was able to associate it with birds. Tying wings to a bumper wasn't enough. Now she looks at the sky every time someone lights a firework off.

You can read all the books you want, but I firmly believe having someone experienced help is a must. My $.02


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You can have all the fancy training and pedigree in the world...it's not worth a shit without bird contacts.  Get your dogs on birds, birds, and more birds....then find more birds.  Did I mention getting your dogs on birds?  

Your first dog.  Find a trainer that will work with you and your dog.  It will be the best possible money you can spend when it comes to obedience, gun training, and field manners.  Also, make sure your trainer gets your dog on birds.

IMO, the Brittany is a good choice, I had Brittany’s for the better part of my life.  They are great family members and hard working, efficient hunters.  With luck, I’ll be getting my 6th Brittany hunting partner within the next 6 months or so.  

I used Richard Wolters “Gun Dog” as a baseline for training.  Very easy book to use..... and it works!  I tried cap guns with moderate success, but had my best luck with slapping two small boards together when the pup never expected it.  Mostly when eating or playing.  Never had a gun shy dog, but did have one that went absolutely bonkers during 4th of July fireworks.  

Best advice I can give you regarding training is......... practice, Practice, PRACTICE!!!  Repetition will produce a good dog.  Train at the speed your dog wants to learn, not at the speed you want him/her to learn.  A professional knows how to force train a dog, an amateur doesn’t.  Patience is the best tool in your toolbox.  When the pup looses interest, stop and pick it up again later.  These tips carried me thru 5 dogs.  Each successive pup was better than the last, as I learned “how to” from the mistakes I made while training the previous dog(s).

Good luck OP, enjoy the journey

I loaded a few 12 ga shells with primers only and did some restrained pigeon exercises.

As they gained a bit more confidence I took them to the trap club.  Our club has 18 fields only the first 3 or 4 fields from the center are used most of the time. I started out a long ways from the active fields and played ball, fetch, and find the wing games.  As they got more used to the noise and shots I moved up the range a ways.  

They went to the pheasant club for planted pheasants after that.

you want to train your own dog

read this book..
https://www.amazon.com/Gun-Dog-Revolutionary-Training-Method/dp/0525245499

I trained over 30 GSP with this book.. its dated but it works.

I like the book above and I also like
https://www.amazon.com/Speed-Train-Your-Own-Bird/dp/0811723046/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=speed+train+your+bird+dog&qid=1611234387&s=books&sr=1-2

I had Brittanys when I was young and have had Vizslas for the past 25 years. Every Brit I ever had was a lot softer than a Pointer. They want to please so be easy but firm in their training.

Like a few people said, nothing can replace bird contact. They really need to see a lot of birds if you want a great dog.

i can train a dog to do a lot of things but I do not think I can train a dog to overcome being gunshy. For that reason I am super sensitive and slow in training with gunfire but some of the suggestions before me seem ludicrous. I start with .22 blanks in a one old 22 revolver. I get the dog occupied a good ways off and just start letting the gun pop a little closer as time goes on. I also train near a rifle range but never let the dog get any closer than 100 yards and we begin way further than that. The key is to pay attention to where your dog first notices the sound and move very slowly from that point forward. If at any point the dog even remotely seems a tiny bit distressed, STOP.

Be sure to have fun. I really enjoy seeing a dog work a bird beginning to end. Seeing a dog doing what it was bred to do and loving every second of it is almost poetry.

I decided to board him with breeder that also trains bird dogs so that he'd have more exposure to live birds. Got some pictures back from him.

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He was very slow to get started as his prey drive is only so-so. He is coming around though

Good luck!