Pointing Lab

[Palm Valley Quail]

I should be getting my lab pup towards the end of the year and have been wanting to train her to point. So I got a video and a book on how to go about doing this. Well in this info it says a lab has either got it or it doesn't and that if the pup shows some kind of sign of pointing then you work off of that. So I'm wondering what my chances are of getting a lab that has the point in it. Does anyone have a lab that points or know of anyone ? Or are my chances pretty low.

Thanks

[Redhorse]

I had a lab once that would sound when it struck the trail of a pheasant and go into this stiff legged walk/run while tracking the bird and had this wierd corkscrew thing he would do with his tail. That dog never did anything like that for rabbits, ducks, geese, doves,etc... I don't know what your chances are, but I'd say take whatever that dog gives you and work with it. I never trained that lab to point because I had a GSP at the time as well. We would drop that lab into these little marshy brush pits the pointers wouldn't go into. Ace would have rabbits running out of one end and pheasant flying out the other!

[Bird Crazed]

I want to qualify my statement first by saying I love all dogs, read alot on them, attend clinics on training them, and compete with mine.  What I have read is that there are some breeders who are starting to breed this into labs and are doing so with success.  You can find them in ads ran in Gun Dog Magazine for example.  My thoughts echo what I have heard from professional trainers.  You want a pointing dog than get a pointing dog.  You can train any dog to retrieve efficiently.  I have a versatile breed, a GSP, who is awesome in the water as well as land.

Whatever you do, it all starts with a reputable breeder.  You know you got a good breeder when they screen you before they sell you the pup!!

[Palm Valley Quail]

I understand what your saying,and for the most part agree but this will also be a family dog. My family has decided they want a lab so for the longest time I have told them no , that I thought one dog was enough. We currently have a rottie that is getting pretty old and has diabetes. So I finally told them they could, under one condition-that I can train it to hunt. So this has sort of limited the breed and I thought why not get and train an all around pointing lab.