New Hunting Dog 1/2 Breed

Don't know why you can't use him this year, I've shot many birds from in front of 12 week old dogs. Kinda how they learn and develop what comes naturally to them. What does not come naturally to them is obedience training and is just as important as any natural hunting abilities. Stay and stop(whoa to some) are critical to the safety of any hunting dog and until they learn and obey those commands, are at risk to being killed or injured(barbed wired fences and roads being the biggest risks). Pups are pups and will be hyper and mischievous. Keep them busy with hunting and training and they calm down well, while showing them what your priorities are. Good luck with him and hunt safe.

Good looking pup! Hunting dogs can also be pets, make sure he knows who is boss. If possible get some professional training help ( to teach you how to teach him). You should be able to hunt him this year.
You have a lot of years of fun hunting and companionship ahead, enjoy.

This is Ruger, loose noose. He's close to the same breed as your dog. Ruger is 3/4 Cocker and 1/4 Springer. His mother was a papered Cocker with quite a pedigree. His dad was a Cocker/Springer cross from papered parents.
I had full intention of using Ruger for chuckers and sharp tails when we got him 9 years ago. And I had him retrieving a bird dummy sprayed with a little pheasant scent real well. That was until I took him out in the pasture one afternoon and tossed the bird dummy into a patch of weeds. As I did that, I fired a little .22 blank in the air with the revolver I had in my other hand. Game over. Ruger came back and sat down between my feet.
I know, I could have worked with him, and got him over being gun shy. But we just decided it wasn't worth it. Which as it turned out, was a wise decision indeed. In nine years, we've had Ruger to the vet 5 times to get cheat grass out of one or the other of his ears. Those needle-sharp little cheat grass seeds get clear down to his eardrum, he literally screams from the pain, and the vet has to put him out in order to get in there with a pair of tweezers without damaging his eardrum. It costs $165.00 to get a cheat grass seed out of Ruger's ear, and like I said, we've had to have it done 5 times.
It doesn't matter though, because he's worth it. He's the best pet we've ever had, and a very good watch dog. Not that he'd ever bite anyone, but with those (expensive) ears of his, he sounds the alarm before anyone ever gets close to the house. Heck, he even sounds off when the mail lady stops at the mailbox across the road, 100 yards away.
Just one more story - as far as crossbreed dogs being good hunters, when I was growing up, my dad had papered, pedigreed Brittanies that he ran in field trials. But he used to gripe because the best pheasant hunting dog he had on the place was old Suzy - a Brittany/Cocker half-breed. And Suzy was our house-pet.

English cockers make wonderful bird dogs and retrievers but American cockers have had their hunting instincts dampened by the pet industry (puppy mills) and show dogs. I have a Boykin spaniel who was retrieving teal dummies at 8 weeks. I trained her myself after reading and following the training tips in Richard Wolter's "Gun Dog". I had brittanies before but never a retriever. This dog turned out great. If you have a Wolter's book, read it again or buy one. It will be money well-spent.

The man who sold me my Boykin puppy put the pups and mother on his back porch, He had a very strong spring on the screen door and every time someone went in or out, the screen door would slam loudly. The pups were exposed to this loud noise from birth and none were ever gun shy or afraid of thunderstorms.

I always used a toy cap gun when feeding my pups and gradually increased noise until a 12 ga. shotgun was no problem. Most hunting dogs will perk up at the sound of a shot. I had one hard-headed pointer (that's an oxymoron) who would run to the gunshot. When he wouldn't respond to "COME!", I'd shoot a gun and he'd come running looking for the bird.

Congratulations on your new hunting partner.
Teaching basic obedience to a pup is pretty easy. Puppies are just like kids (and a lot of adults), they have short attention spans. Train 2 or 3 times every day for just 5 to 10 minutes at a time and keep it fun.
Getting a pup to be really solid on the sit command takes time. If he sits on command that's great, the next step is to stay there while you take one step back, then two steps, 3, 4 ......
Rewarding him with a treat the instant he sits can be a fun game.
Others have recommended Richard Wolter's books, and I do too, although there are some new trainers that I think are even better. Bill Hillmann is very good. He has some short youtube videos that are worth a look.
Post some pics of your pup with his first birds.

loose noose said:

I recently acquired a 50% Springer Spaniel (Papered hunting dog) and a 50% Cocker Spaniel (also papered, but generally a pet) . I plan on using him for quail, and chucker, and occasionally pheasant and even ducks, I've shot over him with a shotgun and he definitely isn't gun shy. In fact he became very inquisitive and began checking out where the dust cleared after the shot.

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Congratulations! That's not a ½-breed, that's two fine and distinguished breeds in one dog. Or that's how I like to paraphrase it if anyone asks. On top of all he looks a LOT like one of my late hunting dogs, a Gordon setter - same color pattern, same posture, similar face and expression, only much smaller.

Baseline obedience training is straightforward and only requires patience, but the combination of curious nature, hunting instincts and not being gun shy is a great sign. Everything else can be trained fairly easily but if a dog has no instinct whatsoever, it's very difficult to make it work when hunting. Aside from our Weimaraners I had this idea of giving our Canaan dog a basic hunting training but whenever a gun is fired anywhere within half a mile of her, she puts on the Wile-E-Coyote-on-a-cliff-waiting-for-the-gravity-to-kick-in -face and takes off. It takes at least half an hour and the better part of a box of cold cuts to persuade her out from underneath the truck/bed/table/etc. once that happens.

So enjoy, you seem to have a great hunting dog candidate in your hands, and the best of luck with the training. Keep us updated how it goes.

Here's my high powered French Brittany...isn't she a go-getter?..?
The ol' Quail wing on a fishing pole will get him to point.

"saw a Mohave Green Rattle Snake. I'm gonna have to wait until it gets a lot cooler, as there is no sense in risking losing him to a snake bite."

If you have many poisonous snakes in your area, you can "snake-proof" your dog using an e-collar.
Catch a snake, it doesn't have to be poisonous. Let your dog jump in and out with the snake like they do. When he gets real close or touches the snake, zap him with the e-collar at its highest number. Do it again in a couple of weeks. If your dog won't go after it the second time, shove the snake close to your dog and zap him again. That will work for about a year and then you need to do it again as a refresher.

I did this with my dog who thought she was a snake charmer. She will refuse to go within 10-15 feet of any snake now..

Yes, wait until your pup is older and larger before using that technique.
We have lots of cottonmouths down here and my spaniel is primarily a duck and dove dog. We also have quite a few pygmy rattlers. I haven't seen a big diamondback in over 10 years though.
You can use that "aversion technique" for other things too but I only used it to save my dog from being bitten by poisonous snakes or alligators.

Having your dog with you as much as possible is the best way to make a good hunting dog. I was able to teach my little pit bull to hunt squirrel and rabbit with me. He retrieved but was very slow at giving the catch to me.

'Pointing' from the comfort of the tractor cab.

Slow morning in the duck boat.

loose noose said:

Armored Farmer, good looking Springer Spaniel, there, I noted his brown coloring is very similar to Ranger's feet, and eyebrows. He appears very intent on whatever is out in that field. Springer's are truly a very special breed of hunting dog

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Weeeeelll, haha .....
She's actually a French Brittany.

It was a rabbit. She rides in the tractor every day that Mrs farmer drives it.

loose noose said:

Drunken Poacher, good looking retriever you've got there, nothing like an Irish Setter for a best friend, a good buddy of mine used to have one, which he called "Murphy". That dog was exceptionally smart and excellent on pheasant, partridge, as well as ducks. Unfortunately most of the hunting instinct was bred out of them in favor of show dogs in the last few years. Don't look like you have to worry though.

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Thanks, actually a Golden Retriever 11 months old and very talented in spite of his coach.

There are some breeders resurrecting the Irish Setter as a hunting dog. They are calling them Red Setters to separate them from the show bred Irish Setter.