What age should you start gundog training?

Here at BDT our choice is to start forming good habits from the off, so a recent litter of home bred labradors we had, started their training as soon as their ears opened. Each time they fed from mum, they heard 5 sharp short pips on the whistle to coincide with the release of endorphins dogs experience when happy and obviously with Labradors, eating. 

This pushed on to when they were weaned onto Raw Food, and stll continues at 16+ weeks with their new families. 

Before you start teaching all manner of commands and think your dog is super intelligent at 10 weeks old, get the recall going first. There is plenty of time to teach the other stuff, but recall MUST be ingrained from the earliest opportunity. 

As well as all the socialisation and bonding stuff we do with our pups we also play with them alot to increase that bond and want to be with us. 

When it comes to gundog training, introducing parts of it and commands can be done long before you do any formal gundog work, which will normally start here at around 6-9 months, sometimes later if the dog needs the time.