( 4 reviews )
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Posted: Jan 7 2009
Very disappointed as this was a story of someone's trial & tribulation, not a guide to good training procedures. Would not recommend.
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Dec 30 2005
First, this is NOT a training book. There are many better such books around. It is ,rather, the short story of a total novice who gets the totally wrong dog for himself, a Field trial-bred Pointer to hunt grouse in the Northeast. Fortunately, he gets steered to some good professional trainers and after at least three long stays with them for his dog, gets things mostly worked out. It is an interesting book, but the training is not done by the author; moreover,he has no knowledge of what he's done wrong, either in training or initial selection of his dog, so can't make suggestions to others. It isn't at all impossible to train a bird dog yourself,but you have to do your homework and be more sensible than Healy. Well-written and worthwhile book, though, if you don't expect too much. 3 1/2 stars maybe, especially if you are WAY over your head and want to use a pro trainer. But NOT a training book.
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( 7 of 7 found this review helpful ) Posted: Dec 29 2005
First, this is NOT a training book. There are many such books around which are far better for that purpose. It is, rather, the short story of a total novice who gets the totally wrong dog for himself, a big-running field trial-bred Pointer to hunt grouse in the Northeast. Fortunately, he gets steered to some good professional trainers and after at least three long stays with them for his dog, gets things mostly worked out. It is an interesting book, but the training is not done by the author; moreover, he has no knowledge of what he's done wrong, either in training or initial selection of his dog, so can't make suggestions to others. It isn't at all impossible to train a bird dog yourself, but you have to do your homework and be more sensible than Healy. Well-written and worthwhile book, though, if you don't expect too much. 3 1/2 stars maybe, especially if you are WAY over your head and want to use a pro trainer. But NOT a training book.
