Training the Versatile Hunting Dog

Book Synopsis: Training the Versatile Hunting Dog By Chuck Johnson

Training the Versatile Hunting Dog shows you how to develop a great hunting dog with Chuck's new approach. This approach emphasizes letting your young dog first develop his natural abilities: use of nose, desire, cooperation, search, pointing, and tracking. Then, after his first season, Chuck shows you how to put the controls on your dog with chapters on the trained retrieve and whoa training. The versatile breeds also love water, and there are detailed chapters showing you how to train your dog to be an outstanding water retriever. Chuck also covers how to pick a pup, the importance of early socialization, introducing your pup to gunfire and to birds. This is a revolutionary book written for the popular versatile hunting breeds: German shorthair, wirehair, Griffon, Vizsla, and Weimaraner among others. Each instructive chapter has a detailed explanation of the training techniques, along with numerous illustrative photos. There are also detailed plans for building a quail call-back pen, a pigeon pen, and a dog kennel along with a list of dog training suppliers and various hunting dog organizations.

Chuck and Blanche Johnson have been hunting, breeding, and training their own German wirehaired pointers for over 30 years. Chuck has been writing the Versatile Hunting Dog column for Pointing Dog Journal for over 15 years. He is also the author of the Wingshooter's Guides to Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Chuck and Blanche are the owners and publishers of Wilderness Adventures Press, publishers of hunting and fishing guidebooks. Blanche is a professional photographer. The Johnson's spend a number of days each fall hunting wild birds with their wirehairs.

ReviewGray's Sporting Journal: Chris Camuto
This book strikes me as especially wise and useful in its detailed treatment-nearly week by week-of handling, living with, socializing and eventually training puppies and your hunting dogs. Chuck Johnson digs into the subtle details of what everyone knows but which is so easy to screw up - those first 24 weeks - and, if you haven't messed up by then, that first year of training and early hunting. Although Johnson is fond of and most familiar with wirehairs, this book ought to be useful for anyone training any potentially versatile breed. Most quality hunting breeds can be taught a serviceable repertoire of hunting, pointing, and/or retrieving tasks. The Versatile Hunting Dog offers a remarkable amount of detail while maintaining a running sense of what training a hunting dog is all about.

6 x 9, B&W photos
Availability: New and Updated edition available February 1st.