A great pair of questions via another of my social media sites merited a bit of introspection and a question in my own mind … HOW WOULD YOU ANSWER THESE?
I have 3 hunting dogs – 2 Brittanys and a Chocolate lab. The Brits are great for upland bird hunting while the lab excels with duck hunting but often goes with us after pheasants. All really enjoy retrieving birds and as you state, having the bird in their mouths.
Couple of problems I have noticed when taking all dogs upland bird hunting.
Brittanys do a great job locking up on a point. Both dogs “honor” the other Brittany’s point.
Problem arises with the Lab. Being a “flusher” he normally stumbles into the point and flushing the bird early.
Obviously I probably need to keep Lab out of the field when hunting with pointing bird dogs so I don’t ruin the hard work my Brittany’s put in to point birds.
I have heard tales that you can train Labs to point (there is a kennel in Mid West stating they raise pointing Labs). Is this possible in your evaluation?
The other problem when I sometimes take all 3 dogs out pheasant / quail hunting together is they ALL want the same bird / birds after they’ve been shot.
This often leads to a race to the fallen bird and struggle between the dogs to retrieve back to me.
Worse yet, one of the Brits tends to want to play “keep away” with the retrieve from the other dogs.
Any suggestions on how I can train my dogs to prevent this activity?
My answer:
Take them all! But train them a bit more. Okay, maybe a LOT more …
1. Lab: walks at heel during the hunt, point, flush.
2. Britts find and point, remain steady to wing, shot, fall. Lab too – at heel.
3. Britts steady when Lab then retrieves. Or, when you choose, when you send one Britt for the retrieve.Don’t bother trying to “train” your flusher to point. Some Labs might point a bit, but if you don’t have one, don’t push Mother Nature. Use your dogs the way they were designed.
Your answer?
Scott Linden Outdoors 
Flushing dogs can be taught to honor pointers by sitting until the bird is flushed – having a flusher doesn’t mean that it can’t stop and wait before being sent in to flush.
One of the best friends I’ve ever had was a labrador. There was not one bit of point in that dog—what he smelled he was going after. Today I have pointing dogs. I refuse to let them hunt with a flushing dog in the field, whatever the breed. If a buddy shows up and wants to hunt his flushing dog, I will leave mine in the box. It’s just too rough on pointers. You can watch their reactions when they have a bird pointed and a dog comes through and busts the bird, especially when there is no shot afterward. My best advice would be to hunt the pointers together, then hunt the lab by itself in whatever kind of rotation works for where you are.
In most cases, you are absolutely right. It requires so much training otherwise.
Good bird dogs take years to achieve and they should all be trained to the same skill levels before you put them into the field together. This way they will all understand the “rules” of the hunt. If they have not had equal training and some seasoning they will tend to revert to the skill level of the poorest trained dog because they get confused about what the rules of the game are. We should never put untrained with highly skilled dogs in the hope that the unskilled dog will learn from the other.
Allowing a lab or any dog to bust birds while the other dogs are on point is just mean the the pointers after doing all the work.
On the second question: the dog who gets the point should be the dog that always gets the retrieve while the other dogs stay on point. When the dog returns with the bird and gives it to the handler, the bird should then be given to the other dog(s) that remained on point. This way all the dogs get their reward (bird in mouth). If all dogs are allowed to go for the retrieve at the same time you are teaching them to compete with each other instead of working as a pack together.
Lab: walks at heel during the hunt, point and then when you’re ready send lab in for flush.