dog problem, help needed

ok, so i have a one year old lab, i have been training him to track birds with pigeons. i would put the pigeons in the tall grass at the parks and than tell him to go find them. he would find them all the time. i introduced him to the pheasent when i bought some for food. he was good with them too. he seems to be really good at finding them as long as he gets near them.

the problem now, i took him to talcot for pheasent hunting the first time. at first he went out and started searching on my command. but being that it is reality and not training he did not find any birds near by. after a few hours we managed two birds, thats because we had another dog. but my dog, gave up. he just did not want to go out and look anymore. he went out when i commanded him too, but only for a few minutes and came back. i watched as my cousins dog furiously looked and sniffed for birds and flushed them left and right. but my dog went out, did not even sniff, looked around and ran back. he did this all day. i am really wondering if he just does not know the game yet, or is he just like that. i have really lost faith in him after seeing how he worked in the field.

my question now is, what should i do, do i keep him and continue training or not. is he even worth the training anymore. his father is a pheasent flushing champion and has the papers to back it up, so bloodline is great. if i continue to train him, what steps should i now take to get him to search all day long and not give up so easily. please, any advise is strongly appreciated, because right now i feel like i just want to give him to the pound. but if there is a way i can get him to do better i will definetly do it.

Have patience, he’s just a puppy. Let him have fun. He’ll come around. When he does good love him up. All dogs are different. Don’t compare him to other dogs. A lab wants nothing more than to please you. Thats their nature. Take him out as often as ya can and have fun.

Game farm. He’ll stay interested if he gets to put up a lot of birds. Also I wonder if he might be intimidated by working with a n older more agressive dog. I don’t know maybe Don could coment on that. Could be a conditioning issue too. Maybe the dog is pooping out early. I would be a long way from giving up. As stated before the dog is just a pup.

I agree with Norseman, have patience. Here are a couple things I got from reading your post. First off you were training with birds and that is good. The thing is going from a training session that may only last a 1/2 hour to an all day hunting trip is alot to expect from a young dog. Another thing is working in tall grass and snow may have tired him out.
First I would get him in an open field with short cover and have him chase a clipped wing pheasant.Hold the dog while you toss the bird down. The bird will take off running. Your dog should go bonkers wanting to catch it. Let him go and catch the bird. I am assuming that since you were training in a park, you probably were not firing a gun.Next I would take him to a game farm or a place where you can shoot. Start out in medium cover and lay a scent trail down. Either by dragging a bumper with pheasant scent on it or dragging a pheasant. I would zig/zag the scent trail accross the field And then plant birds on the edges. What you want is the quartering and when he is at the edge of his range he finds a bird. Not everytime he quarters but enough to hold his interest. Say 4 birds in a 100 yard field would be plenty. To start this I like to use clipped wing birds. They will flush but can only stay airborne a short time. This way you can fire the gun and simulate a shot bird. After a few sessions you then can plant flyers. This should get the dog birdy and put it together with gunfire.

which game farms would you guys reccomend, i am short of money, but am willing to pay for the dogs training.