Keeping him in range

Got a new dog and I’m having problems keeping him in shooting range. He quarters well in cover, but when he starts getting birds up he seems to lose it and starts running like a mad man. I use the e collar, but don’t wanna overdo it if thats possible. He is just learning, but I don’t want to have this become a recurring problem. I don’t have alot of experience as this is my first bird dog. Is this a normal problem? And if so, how do I solve it? thanks

I would look at it as a good thing not a problem. It sounds like you dog has the drive and desire. trainers will go about this in different ways. If the dog sees lots of birds and I mean hundreds, the trainer will let the dog figure it out. What I mean by that is say the dog is out and flushes 40 birds (South Dakota) and chases a hen accross the county. The dog will soon realize that it spent alot of energy and did not get rewarded by retrieving the bird. Most of us don’t have the luxery of being able to use that many birds so lets look at a couple of other methods we can use.
Being that he quarters well, I would start by building on that. Take him to a field where there are not ant birds. have him quarter and when he ranges too far out toss a bird down close to you. Then call him back around and he will find a bird close to you. He will soon realize that bird are close to you and thus stay near. Next I would plant birds on the edges. say you want him to quarter 20 yards to each side. Plant birds at that 20 yard distant, he will get used to that distance and that will be his turning point. Now he is finding birds on both sides of you and at the range you want. Up to this point I use clipped wing birds. After a few sessions you can start planting a flyer or two. He will soon learn that even though that bird flew away, he will find another bird in the field instead of chasing the flyer.
Now lets take a look at the dogs obedience. he has been out chasing birds and loves the field now lets get him solid on obedience. I don’t know where you are at with this but do the obedience in the yard or somewhere differnt than the hunting fields. Three thingd you dog has to do, go away from you (which he already is doing), stop, and come back. So for the obedience training, teach the dog to stop on you command. Then teach him to come back on command.
Once he is solid on obedience you then can combine it with field training. We will steady him in the field or in a field situation anyway. He knows the sit command from the yard work and know hes must comply. Now what I can do is steady him to the gun. This is going to be new to him so at this point I have him on a leash. When we are walking, I will fire the gun and then give the sit command. If you follow a basic guideline of training the dog will soon learn that the gun fire is the same as the sit command. Once he has this mastered we will do the same thing with a bird. We will toss a bird and then give the sit command. Again it won’t take very long and the dog will be sitting when the bird is tossed. Now your dog sits when you shoot and sits when a bird falls. Next we can steady him to the flush. Using the same method, plant some birds and have the dog flush them. When he flushes the bird have him sit. When doing this step, do not use all flyers or your dog may develope a lackluster flush. Plant cliiped winged birds also so you dog busts them on the flush.
Now you dog will stop on your vocal command, stop when a bird flushes and stop when the gun fires.
This is a basic outline, if you have any questions give me a shout.

i would agree with everything don said.

and remember, you can always take it out of a dog, but you cannot put it in him! having too much desire is never a bad thing, you just need to learn how to harness it.