Professional Bird Dog, Gun Dog Trainer

Josh McPhearson recently turned pro will be featured in most if not all of the bird dog training post here. Josh Mentored under Sonny Mortensen. Sonny Mortensen, Bill Gibbons and Bill West pioneered the training methods that just plain work.

Josh will be providing information for me to post here related to bird dog training and breaking. Josh also breaks dogs for hunting and field trials. He has dogs that have placed in national trials and much experience breaking dogs at varied stages of life and training.


He can be reached at 801.372.5481

Stop to Flush, Valuable Pointing Dog Training

This being my first blog post here and really the first of real substance (IMHO). I spent a few hours with my good friend and pro trainer Josh McPhearson doing stop to flush with a variety of pointing dogs. We worked a Brittany, a German Short Hair, and a few Vizslas this day.

Anyone that has spent time breaking a pointing dog knows the value of creating a dog with more pointing instinct. Stop to flush is an invaluable tool in generating more point in your bird dog. With that background an explanation for those unfamiliar with stop to flush training: Stop to flush means that as soon as a dog sees a bird (particularly a game bird flying) it stops and awaits the command of the handler to move ahead.

Stop to Flush Benefits:

• eliminates the chase delayed chase
• Dogs broke to stop to flush do not chase and bump (flush) other birds in the area
• The pointing instinct is greater because the chase is no longer part of the equation
• Reinforces the whoa training
• Dog's can be taught to whoa on command in any position

Teaching Stop to Flush with training partner:

• Put the dog on a check cord and have a training partner follow with birds.
• Training partner tosses a bird so that it flies in view of the dog
• As soon as the dog begins the chase give a correction with the check cord (give it a little pull), stop the dog and set the dog back (note: just set the dog back does not have to be put back in the exact location of the infraction).

Teaching Stop to Flush using a bird launcher:

• Set out at lest 2 launchers and more if they are available with a bird loaded (we will cover the value of a launcher in our next post).
• Take the dog out on a check cord as explained above
• Upon release of the bird get a correction on the dog and set the dog back as above (look for video to come)

Transition to e-collar:

• Once the dog is performing with the check cord transition to the e-collar
• perform the above steps and add the e-collar stimulation to the the correction with the check cord nick the dog (nick, nick, nick) until you have set it back
• Now the dog will associate the electronic correction as a correction

Come back frequently for more tips and tricks. We will be covering many outdoor subjects. In the mean time get out and be good land steward (enjoy what the outdoors)