Teaching Sacha to point?

Sacha’s a 6 month old 3/4 lab x 1/4 vizsla. I thought she might’ve had shown some pointing traits while sniffing around the garden. After last weekend’s successful trip, I hung my pack and meat bag on the clothesline to air. When she went outside, she caught a whiff and went into a pretty good if not classic point.

I was mainly intending to train her for finding downed deer, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if she can put me on to some live ones. She’s obviously inherited some pointing genes, so how do I develop them? Do I even need to?

Never had a dog before. Been focusing on come, sit, stay, heel up until now. Working on curbing the barking…

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Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Dogs don't necessarily "point".
Learn to read its body language and you will work out what is going on.

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absolutely .... your not just training the dog you need to train yourself as well

If barking is causing an issue for you and the neighbors.
Good quality bark collar is a good in investment.
They soon learn collar on = barking not.
Our wee pointer was a persistent barker. Now o just put collar on and no barking. Do not even have to actually switch it on sobattery last ages ��
Second learning to read your dog the more time you spend out together the more you both learn. Pointing comes in many forms you just have to learn to recognise them.

Breeds with the pointing ability do point, they are ether strong with it or it needs fostering… labs have never done well in pointer setter trials for some reason

Get to know ur dog. My Viszla will point at birds, insects, mice....fun not!

But will not piont for game amimals but does go to full lock up like a statue..

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Originally Posted by Mohawk660

Get to know ur dog. My Viszla will point at birds, insects, mice....fun not!

But will not piont for game amimals but does go to full lock up like a statue..

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Remmy's much the same - must run in the family ;)
We have pretty much got the bird thing sorted . Had to or he would spend all day chasing fantails which was frustrating but now he pretty much ignores them .
We have learnt to watch him and read him and now can pretty much figure out what is going on .
Just watch Sasha and you will slowly learn all the subtle little telltales through her movements etc .
We are newby dog owners as well and have realized he isn't like the dogs we watched in hunting videos , but has his own way of showing what's up once you learn to read the nuances in the way he moves , particularly what his head/nose is doing....

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Originally Posted by Mohawk660

My Viszla will point at birds, insects, mice....fun not!

But will not piont for game amimals but does go to full lock up like a statue..

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caught my girl out in the middle of the paddock scenting the air and "half" pointing yesterday......
shes a whippet x with maybe heading dog and terrier ....so not your traditional pointer......when shes in the bush she will lock up when she confirms (by sight)a game animal briefly then will stalk in if i dont catch her in time she will try and "herd" the animal back to me.....which may sound good but its not ideal its quite difficult to get a shot at an animal running full tit towards you .... i think its common to lose more deer than you get while you learn to work as a team with your dog

I followed this up myself a while back. My dog points birds but not animals.
He still tells me they're there but more like my old goat dog who was mainly heading.

I went on forums and browsed all sorts of stuff. Painful. So many 'experts'. None of whom ever actually trained a dog to point. Obviously relying on breeding and encouraging that natural instinct.

I did however find a few things.

One guy on YouTube with a Gsp. Also some forum posts of a couple of guys training it in(US) . I've started working on it with my dog.
Like any trained response you want from your dog it can be encouraged.