Got him last Sunday. He has been such a good pup! Excited to make him my trap line dog for many years to come! Any words of advice are welcomed!

SJA will love seeing this one. He has always had German pointers.

I grew up with beagle's, but as I got older my heart was with short hairs. This is my third one. It's been almost 12 years since I had a pup. Almost like having another kid!! Lol

Nice

Excellent! I'm envious.. He's beautiful. I like short-coupled dogs.

Jack

Nice dog LB. You and the family will have a blast with that boy.

Docked tail,,ready for the brials and brambles.I do that to my rabbit beagles.Much better for the dog in the long run.Good looking pup.

Beautiful pup.
#1 lesson to learn. Teach that pup you love him but you and your family are the Boss.

Lesson #2, refer to lesson #1.

I love my shorthairs! Only downside to young ones is that they will run you ragged. High energy dogs!

The more time you spend with them as a pup, the less time you have to fight with them as an adult.

Best retrieving dogs I have ever had. I had 4 time nstra field champ seters but my shorthairs were what I prefer to wild bird hunt with. I even wore my young female out once. I keep throwing a ball down the hill trying to get her to stop. Eventually I had to make her stop because she would have killed herself and keep going. But in 10 min she was ready to go again. I was terribly sore for 3 days. I love their build, color, st
and drive.

Put the pup on some birds.

My dad used to hunt GSP’s, they were great dogs, excellent pointers and retrievers. That was back when Pennsylvania still had wild pheasants.

The most important thing to have any dog become a good companion and a part of the family is teaching them basic obedience. The sit, stay and come commands are the foundation for any training regiment. I teach those three basic commands in that order and train until they are rock solid. Then we build from there.

You can start teaching basic obedience very early, as soon as the dog recognizes his name you can start teaching the sit command.

My dogs are taught to be gentleman and ladies. No jumping up on people, no rushing in and out of doors ahead of people, no running up and down stairs, no begging for food. Teaching them that sort of stuff makes them much more pleasant to live with.

There are lots of decent training books and videos available. There are a few really great ones. I have always followed Richard Wolters methods. His books are old but his methods are timeless and very effective.

Really appreciate all the kind words everyone. He gets more love in a day than one can imagine.
Lugnut, appreciate the advice. This is my third gsp, and they all have been fantastic dogs. You mentioned about the dogs blasting out the door in front of you and that has been a struggle with all of them. You have peeked my curiosity and something I want to definitely work on. I will check out Richard Wolters stuff and get it to the house. Thanks
Jake

I have always had labs, I currently have two. They can be high-energy and a handful in the house if not taught to be gentlemen and ladies. The blasting out the door and knocking people aside thing was cured by having them rock solid on the "sit" command. I just tell them to sit when they are at the door wanting to go out. They sit and I open the door for them. They stay sitting until I tell them "okay" then they go blasting out the door. I make sure I'm out of the way before releasing them.

I have four or five of Wolters' books. He has one or two specifically on training labs. His book "Home Dog" is a good one for basic training any dog. I think that's the one where he talks about early development, environmental enrichment and other interesting stuff. He also has one on bird dogs titled "Gun Dog". His books were written in the 70's and I've been training with his methods since then. I'm sure there are other, equally good training methods but I know his methods work.

Some trapline photos of some of my labs past and present:

Beautiful pup

This photo was from when my current yellow male was just a pup, about six months old. I cabled a fox on a faint two-track through a grass field. I had him walk at heel (off leash) up to the catch. We got to about fifteen feet and I was about to tell him to sit. The bouncing fox was too much for him. He broke from heel and rushed the fox. I yelled "SIT" and at that exact moment he hit the other cable (I had one set on each track) and a half second after that he hit the end of the cable and did a back flip.

He sat up and looked at me with reverence. He was completely awestruck that I had the kind of power to stop him in his tracks like that. LOL

I released him from the cable, made him heel and sit and then went around the back of the set to take the pic. That's why he's looking a little sheepish in this photo. He was a good boy after that...at least for the rest of the day...

Lugnut nailed it on teaching those basic commands. Get those down and then take the dog hunting. Everything else will fall in place from there.
I must admit I'm a little lax when it comes to begging for food. I've shared too many sandwiches and cookies!

Lugnut those are fantastic words of advice and greatly appreciate it. Wonderful pictures also!! I hope to make memories on the line like you have!!

Trapdog1, I totally understand the whole begging for food. My older gsp that we have was never feed from the table or did we allow him to beg. He is 12 now, and during the past year or so he gets a few things he would have never got. He is on the last few years of life and just spends his time at home. He is loving life, just can't go like he used too!! Lol