Hi guys, I have an 8 month old GSP named Conrad. He is very smart, but you can't tell my wife that, she thinks something wrong with him cause he still squats to pee, and often pees all over his front legs. Hope he learns to pee like a big boy soon.

Anyway I'm reading "Gun Dog" and even though I think I'm a little late on a lot of this according to the author, I've had some great success with sit/stay, come ( I say here), and he does pretty well heeling off-leash around the neighborhood. I tried starting him on the Whoa the way Gun Dog says to, getting him to come then jumping in the air like a psycho and yelling WHOA, and it worked, he stopped, sat down and looked at me like I was nuts. Now he says only use the the whoa in situations wheres hes interacting with a bird / wing. So I've played the wing on a string game with him a couple times. He says tire him out until he decided to stalk the wing rather than chase it, and I gotta say, Conrad doesn't get tired, he chases and chases (and chases) and eventually gets distracted and wanders off. So I try twitching it along the ground to entice him back into it, and he chases for 5 minutes and then decides to go over there and sniff around.

I'm really excited to see him pointing finally after all the work we've accomplished now, but I am a novice at all of this and don't want to screw it up teaching him wrong.

thanks

My boy is 9 months and lifts his leg if there is something around to pee on, otherwise he squats to pee.  When he squats he sometimes pees on the front feet, but not too often anymore.  Ringo started lifting his leg at 7 months to mark, but now it is also to pee.

In my neck of the wood, the folks teaching GSPs bird hunting are using the method used at Perfection Kennels (Jon and Cindy Hann).  I have used some of the beginning training methods and I can say it works.  They don't have a book, but have two videos call Perfect Start and Perfect Finish.  You can purchase them from Perfection Kennels and I think Gun Dog Supply also sells them online.

I think all pixie was getting at with Wolters is that he trains retrievers and not pointers.  I suspect some of his methods like for sits, etc are similar to other methods.  I haven't read his book so I can't say if it is good or bad.  I can only say I do not know anyone who has GSPs that is using Wolters.

right, so I've got the perfect start, and I'm liking it a lot. I'm really trying to make a big deal about him now, giving him a lot of praise as we have our sessions and he gets it right. All I have to work with at the moment is the choke collar and check cord. Got to save for a decent e-collar. Conrad's doing awesome, I took him to the off leash dog park we have here and let him tire himself out playing with the other dogs, then started giving him "here" commands and "heel" as we walked around and he did surprisingly well.

I'm currently working the whoa with him during the heel on a check cord, and I'd say 70% of the time he stops right there. Other times he wiggles around, sometimes he sits. Now my observation is the techniques in Perfect Start rely heavily on starting with the check cord, then onto the ecollar. I'm wondering, if I'm going to be trying to use Perfect Start / Finish as my model, if I should maybe wait on the whoa until I get the ecollar?

thanks again guys

Oh yeh, here's a crappy quality picture of Conrad, now about 8.5 months old. People keep hassling me about those ribs sticking out. I'm feeding him 2 cups of Canidae every morning and every night. The pet store guy has a GSP and he says hes completely normal. Is this in line with your guys' experience? Im curious about his growth too. At what age do they usually attain their adult height?

I think he looks fine.  As far as growing, my boy seems to have reached his full height at around 7 - 8 months.  He still has some filling out to do though and that will probably last for a while.

My girl reached her full height about the same age and was filled out nicely by the time she was 2.5 years old.

Well, I'll be honest, I'm a little worried if he's supposed to have reached full height at 8 months. The only adult GSPs I've seen in person were his parents and older brother when I picked him up 4-5 months ago. I knew squat about what I was getting into at the time, I just thought they were pretty

So I don't really have anything to measure him against in real life. The pictures on the internet I see of adults seem much bigger than he is now.

Are you worried because you don't think he is big enough?  or too big?  He looks about right to me.  Of course, he still has a lot of filling out to do and adding on muscle.  He won't finish filling out until his is at least 2 years old.

How tall is he in the withers?

If your boy is 23 at the withers he is at the low end of the standard for a male.  Nothing wrong with that.  Belle is 24.5 at the withers and Halo is 23 at the withers. Belle is a big bitch and outside the standard. Halo is also big, but is within standard.  My boy Ringo is also a big male at 25 inches at the withers he is on the upper side of the standard.  As far as skinny goes your boy is at the long and lanky age (think teenager).  Don't worry about him. He will continue to fill out and be a beautiful shorthair.  Pictures are deceiving.  So just so you can compare. 

This is Belle.  Belle is 5 years old.  She is 24.5 inches at the withers and weighs in at 55 pounds.

This is Halo.  Halo was 3 in this picture, is 23 inches at the withers and weighs in at 51 pounds.

And this is my boy, Ringo.  He is 9 months old, 25 inches at the withers and right now weighs 57 pounds.  I expect him to end up somewhere around 65 pounds.  Ringo is really leggy right now and has very little chest.  All that should change as he fills out.