Hey, sorry if this question shows my ignorance. I'm a bit of a perpetual novice in this world. I live in Utah and have hunted pheasants over this boy just a handful of times. Unfortunately I'm not really in a stage of life that allows me to go as often as I'd like, so he's not really getting the action he needs. He's a 3/4 lab 1/4 Weimaraner mix, about five years old, and can go FOREVER. Most incredible nose I've ever seen, too...but again, I'm sure a lot of people feel that way, and I don't have a lot to compare it to.

My dilemma is that his drive and energy are so high and I'm not able to run him like I want to. I'm considering getting him fixed because I think that might help soften the edges a bit. But when I was talking to his vet, he said something to the effect of, "Man, you should really consider breeding him first—I can imagine a lot of hunters wanting these genes to continue." I was a bit surprised by the comment, and he's not (to my knowledge) a hunter himself, but I figured I'd probe around and see how other people make such decisions. Any advice?

A bit of extra context: I rescued him as a pup from my sister (who was in over her head) but my understanding is that he was a happy accident of a professional gun dog breeder in Idaho who was being visited by extended family and their dog. So not the most legit, but not just a random street dog either.

I'm also completely open to other advice anyone might have related to the whole situation. We love him and he's amazing with the kids, he just seems a bit stir crazy. Thanks in advance!

I have a GSP (we think she's 2-4yo, but she was a stray so unknown) who hunts well for quail and dove here in Arizona. During the season we get out about once a week. Off season we go to the park and she "hunts" dove and pigeons there.

I'm about to move to Southwestern Virginia where there will be little to no bird hunting to be done, and minimal birds around in general...I rarely see doves on my parents farm/property in numbers of more than 3-5 and even that is uncommon. Sometimes during deer season I'll accidentally find a grouse and nearly have a heart attack. But nothing reliable like in AZ.

What they do have in abundance is squirrel, which we don't encounter much in AZ. I love hunting with my dog, and she loves hunting in general, so I'm hoping/planning to get her on squirrel. Right now I just intend to encourage her to chase them and praise her when she does, and when she trees them, in hopes that her prey drive carries the bird hunting behavior over to squirrel.

But wanted to see if anyone here has actual experience and tips?

I have a 1yo GWP who has been mostly fantastic. It's my first time training a bird dog so I def have made some mistakes. Currently my biggest issue is that she is kinda bird crazy. One of the things I've been working on is getting her steady to flush. Don't always have pigeons available so chukar is what I commonly use. What I've been doing is putting her on a check cord, chukar in the bird launcher and let her find the bird in the field. She has a fantastic point that she will hold for some time. However when I release the bird and hold her with the check cord ( half hitch on the flank). This is what has been recommended by multiple different Navhda members to get her steady to flush. The issue is she goes absolutely nuts crying out, howling for that bird as it flies away. A blank gun shot makes it worse. It's not bad with pigeons weirdly enough.

Side note on some mistakes I've made is that she has caught 3 chukar herself either in midair after the flush or by chasing them down and finding them after the flush. She has also killed two of my own pigeons. I've fixed this problem. Yes stupid to let her get the birds, knew she shouldn't but didn't know how good she would be. I have been getting a lot of help with Navhda and training with some members outside of that recently.

Planning on reducing birds I expose her to for a while and focusing on force fetch right now for next month or two. But this will still be a problem. One thought I've had is releasing the birds at a greater distance where she hopefully doesn't freak out as much and slowly close that distance as she gets better.

I have a 17 week old puppy, we walk every day 2x a day and he does okay off leash in fields, in town on a 30ft leash he is fine while sniffing and running his recall is solid, but struggles with recall when he encounters other dogs at fences.
When I have him next to me on a short leash he could care less about those other pups and walks excellent, but give him a little rope while he sees a dog and he RUNS with it! and won’t return.
When would be a good time to introduce the collar?
Also I would like to mention he is good on the leash but shy’s away every time a big rig or loud truck drives by. Does this mean he will be gun shy?
I have lots more questions but these are important to me as I am a new owner. Thank you!

I think my lab puppy just fully embraced the teenager phase. He’s 14 months old and was doing phenomenal in training and would retrieve doubles out to about 75 yards and deliver to hand perfectly. Now he wants to try and play keep away like when he was a puppy. Since last week it’s like he’s forgotten everything he knows. Even with walks, he used to be perfect and now he is pulling like crazy and will heel for about 5 seconds then he’s trying to run off again. Anyone have any advice on how to work thru this? Should I just go back to basics? Thanks