Need opinions

[Westie25]

As many of you know I've been in the process of training my dog for the past few months. She's only 15 months old. Fairly solid dog. Obedient. Marks ok. And almost no hand signals. That being said, I'm hunting a field Saturday with 7-8 people I either barely know or don't know. Would you hunt her? If I do hunt her it's doubtful that I even pull my shotgun out.

[capt1972]

Hunt her! And screw the others, I'm sure their dogs are perfect

[josh ward]

Are you worried because of safety reasons???

When in doubt, leave the dog at home. I've been down that road man, hunted with a "buddy of a buddy," a guy I didn't know... He got the pre hunt 'lecture' leave your gun alone when my dog is out in front of us, I will handle criples ect if needed. If you are unsure, either ASK, or DONT SHOOT. blah blah blah.

Well, half way into the hunt dog was making a retrieve, another bird came in and genius shot at it right over the top of my dogs head, you could see the shot pattern just a foot or so away from the dogs head. I lost it, took the dudes gun away from him, threw it in the water, damn near whipped his ass. Made him sit in the truck until we finished picking up as at that point, the hunt was over....

[Westie25]

Some of my concerns are safety and some are her blind manners. This will be her first hunt. She's been shot around but not by 8 guns blasting simultaneously. I dunno maybe I'm just being nervous.

[Flightstopper]

As hard as it is I'd say leave her at home. That's a lot going on or a new pup. Hunted mine for the first time this weekend with a group of four. We didn't ruin the hunt bug with slow birds it was a lot for the pup and did throw him off.

[Westie25]

I thought about taking her, hunting her for a bit, then putting her up. I just know I've put a lot of work and I'm ready for it to pay off. And on the other hand, I don't want to take 15 steps back with her training.

[assateague]

I don't have a dog yet, but I'd say leave her.

[Westie25]

This breaks my heart. Oh well hopefully I can take her to the Tennessee opener.

[Olly]

I think you had the right idea of hunting her for a little bit then putting her in the truck. How's is the dog going to learn and be comfortable without ever being put in that situation? If it were me I'd take my dog and focus solely on the dog, as in when the dog was in the blind I wouldn't be hunting but rather training the dog. Talk to the other guys in the group and see if it's okay that for the first 30 min if they care if only your dog retrieves then put her up and hunt yourself. Just my opinion.

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[Goldfish]

If she hasn't been around a lot of other hunters, I'd say wait. Start her out with just you and a buddy. Then add another. 8 guns seems like a lot going on. Dogs don't seem to learn well with trials by fire, or at least the risk is more than I'm often willing to take but I've had a hard time reversing things I've done. Maybe your dog is ready, but I'd take it slow. She's got a lot of life left in her for you to show off her skills later on.

[Westie25]

I, in no way shape or form, want to show her off. I want to get her on birds as often as possible. I've done every piece of training and hunt like scenario for the last 4 months and want to hunt her. I've worked my ass off.

[Goldfish]

I didn't mean it like that. Just saying that you'll have plenty of hunts in the future when you know she'll be ready. If she flips out at the first flock of birds decoying in because there are 8 guns going off, that would be a darn shame all the fine work you've done with pup just because you wanted to get her out on some birds. Has she been around other guns yet? How many? These are the things I'd think of, BUT, you know your dog. I don't. I'm working thru some gun shyness with my dog, and just don't want to see anyone else have to take the long path that I have is all.