She’s 2.5 years old. I bought her started out of North Dakota a week before thanksgiving. She stays in the house and is calm as could be. But get in the fields and her switch is flipped. She minds well but wants to chase everything from sparrows to deer. We’re hunting together pretty well. Although today I lost her and screamed my head off, hitting the shock collar only to find her on point 20 yards away. Cockbird at that! I felt 6 inches tall

Had a beeper. I don’t want a beeper. Already mentioned running a gps collar, that is what I like. Dead batteries is why it happened. The gps controller vibes when on point, shows direction and distance to dog at all times. Up to like 8 miles away. Maps dog track and controller track. Records hunt tracks, will guide you to truck location and anything else you drop a pin on. You try that and you’ll love it. Garmin 430T. Has a lot of features I don’t use but the gps function is simple, quick and accurate.

I can relate! Same thing happened to me! My dog would work farther and farther away trying to find birds. The next dog I’m thinking about is a Brittany. I heard they like to hunt a little closer. Which means less birds! So, I’m still thinking!

Not wanting the p!$$ match. Thanks for all the comments. I’m out

Do that a few times (sometimes just once) and you will make her bird shy. No more hunting. Get a beeper. Once you hunt with one you wont ever want to be without one

Also, what’s everyone’s experience with a lab chasing birds? I had this problem this year and it was tough on my dog and fruitless because they’d finally come to a block and flush 80 yards away. I definitely have to fix this

Labs are typically a flushing dog and not a pointing breed.

Yes I realize this but birds ran a lot on us this year and she chased them through some pretty tough brush that left her eyes, nose and lips a mess. I couldn’t buzz her back when she chases? But yes she is not a pointer

Neat stuff. Pheasant hunting is, along with squirrel hunting, one of the earliest memories I have with my biological father, who died when I was a pup. I can remember playing the part of the flusher/retriever dog while chasing roosters when I was likely only 3-4 years old. There were pheasants up the ying AND the yang back in those days. During the war (before my time) my brother would slowly drive the car around the section for our father.....who sat in the passenger seat with the .22 rifle poked out the window. They'd go around the section and my dad would shoot a good mess of birds for Sunday dinner. Meat was rationed and all those roosters cost was a little gas and a small number of .22 shells. I still own that rifle. They were still thick until my memories were formed in the late 50's. There aren't many birds nowadays. I once had an uncle drive to our place, from an upstate area without pheasants, so he could get some birds to eat. He loved wild rooster meat. My father had to work and couldn't hunt with him that day, so he lined up a friend to take my uncle hunting. They stomped around and both men filled their 2 bird limits. My uncle was given all 4 birds to take back north. Well it was about dusk when he left. As he was leaving my father told him he'd taken the .22 to work and went hunting on his way home afterwards, and would my uncle like his birds too. Uncle was thrilled to have them. The Old Man went to the barn and grabbed a gunny sack that was "filled with skinned pheasants". My father put them in the back seat and told my uncle that he wanted pheasant meat, and he now had some! During the heyday of Michigan pheasant hunting, it was as if there were so many birds they were like locusts to some farmers. That all ended by the 70's.

Ninety percent of the game is having a obedient dog, that's if the instincts are there. I'd rather hunt over no dog than one that completely ignores its owner/handler and goes out self-hunting.

Bass10,
I'm a lab guy, and have five now. The Springer came from my grandson who couldn't have it where he lived after getting it as a wedding present!
Best thing I can tell you is to train your dogs to stay close at home, not in the field. Any dog will naturally push them hard until they learn the distance limits you impose. I run my dogs twice a day in a five acre field. When they get too far away call them back until they learn how far is too far. A puppy usually takes a long check chord/ leash for awhile, but just be consistent. After awhile they get the idea and will look or listen for you. That is real important to me, because I most often run several dogs at once, usually hunt alone, on CREP or Walk-in land open to the public, and in cattails taller than I am, so they need to keep track of me also.
Birds flying out of a drive is quite common on hard hunted public ground. Not much you can do, but try to push them to points or corners, to better offer a shot. The worse the weather usually the longer they hold. I've hunted in fields that birds are so wild they flush 1/4 section ahead of you. Post blockers if you have them, but even then smart birds will come out the sides or where there are no blockers. I watched four roosters run down a drainage ditch and out the side of a five man drive from a hill top vantage point once. The guys never fired a shot, nor saw the birds! Old roosters don't get old being dumb.