When to add a second dog?

[burbank]

Don’t!

 

[Jason Snyder]

Bumping this thread. I'd like to discuss working two dogs in the field specifically the Do's and Dont's. I have planned to hunt seperate this first season.

Here’s what I did, at the recommendation from my breeder:

First month or two, hunt them together. Let pup learn from the older dog.

When pup has figured out searching and pointing, hunt him solo for a month so

Then, hunt them together with occasional solo hunts mixed in.

I hunted mine together all the time until about 2-3 months in. My older dog tore a pad and went on IR for a few weeks. Pup got hunted solo for a month straight. It did wonders for her dead bird searches.

After my older dog healed I hunted them together, with the occasional solo hunt for each. If I hunted three days straight, I’d do solo, team, solo.

You want each of them to learn to honor the other, and they won’t do that hunting solo. However, they also need to learn to hunt and retrieve solo as well. I found my pup got lazy real fast because my older dog is so good and so efficient at finding dead birds.