Pointing Dogs - Their Training and Handling

Earl Crangle could be described as a second generation old time pointing dog pro. In the 1960's he began to record his thoughts and experiences in training and handling dogs for many years, beginning as a boy working with his father, Hall of Famer George M. Crangle. 

I have a copy of Earl's book, Pointing Dogs - Their Training and Handling  - and have read and re-read the book over the past several years. There is no hollow advice, no tricks, no bullshit. Just solid advice for the bird dog enthusiast. 

One of the intriguing topics is his "Mexico Method" of training bird dogs. Earl lived and trained in Mexico for a number of years, and is partly responsible for the popularity of field trials in Mexico. Here's how he describes the Mexico Method...

"The quail season in Mexico opens November 1 and closes April 1. Thus, there are five months of open, legal shooting per year. I hunted in the states of Morelos, Veracruz,  Chiapas, Tamaulipas, and Yucatan and had the use of thousands and thousands of acres of beautiful quail hunting areas that today still hold an abundance of birds. When the season opened,. I usually hunted two hours in the early morning and the last two hours before dark, sometimes accompanied by friends. Many days I found twenty bevies in the morning and an equal number in the afternoon...

(Snip)

If I have young dogs, from 10 to 18 months of age, I take them along on my hunting trips and brace them with an experienced, fully broke shooting dog. I never run one for less than an hour; and if hunting conditions are good, I let them hunt for two hours. The young dog is allowed to do what he wishes on his birds. If he points, I will kill a bird and take him in to find it. If my experienced dog finds game, I walk up in shooting range in case the birds should flush, and then wait for my young dog to come in... I do not try to hold my young dogs steady to either wing and shot. If they bump a covey or a single bird, I say nothing and resume hunting. Within a week or ten days of this hunting under the gun, most of the youngsters will hold all the birds they point until I flush, breaking to wing and shot. Almost all will back the older dog immediately and remain backing until the birds are flushed.

Starting young dogs in this way has produced for me bird dogs as fine as I have probably seen...

In my opinion, this is required reading for a bird dog person, anywhere and with any breed.