ok guys my pup is currently 6 months old...will be 7 the 13th of september. This saturday (9/3/11) is our opening day of dove season...me and a couple of buddies are gunna be camping out on an island on the Arkansas River...We've been scouting it out and its holding alot of dove...my question is..should i take my dog with me or leave him at the house???? Ive heard take him and leave him....hes coming along great! Been shooting the 12ga around him everyday for the last 2 weeks and doesnt phase him any....i was just wanting to take him dove hunting just so that i could see what he can do....i realize that it will be hot so deff bring lots of water and keep him watered down and bring food....so im not really worried about that...hes dealt with a few mallard wings a couple times but never a dove or small tweety....ill have 3 buddies with me so im not really gunna shoot much..just let them do the shooting and just work my dog. what should i do? give me some opinions... his obedince is really well so im not really concerned about him going crazy or anything...ill keep him on a lead anyways just to be safe....

i mite just have to shoot a lil tweety tonite and see what he ll do...then go from there if i should take him or not

If your ok with not shooting a bunch and think the dog will not interfere with your buddies hunt I'd say bring the dog with. No harm in getting the dog ready for the future.

yea my buddies dont care at all...one of em is actually bringing theres(well trained)...ive hunted with her for over 2 years now and shes a great dog! They were all wanting me to bring mine so he could get some live action practice in before the duck opener...

If your buddies are on board and willing to help out/be patient with your dog, I say go for it.

I would make sure he is very comfortable with a 12ga going off before attempting though. The issue I ran into with my dog was introducing him to gunfire with only me, so he learned when to expect a shot to be fired and was very comfortable with it - but when I took him hunting prematurely and a buddy shot when he wasn't expecting it, it didn't go so well from there... especially when the shot didn't produce a bird or anything to retrieve.

Not saying you'll have the above problem at all, just something to consider as you know your dog best at this point. You might be in a very good position if there will be a dog already trained present, it's amazing what this little critters pick up off of each other!

thanks for the info! yea its def a hard decision....i dont know exactly what he d do when someone else shot or not? i might just end up leaving him at the house just to be on the safe side and then take him early teal just me and him or maybe 1 more buddy...

I would take him as long as you have shot over him. When the shooting starts I would suggest hanging out with other dog so the pup can see what the other dog is doing. Most of all make sure the dog has controlled fun.

If he is very comfortable with multiple guns going off, then I would take him.  But the first time he hears a bunch of guns going off all at once can scramble there brain and make them freeze up if he doesnt expect it. If you can get your buddies to take it easy for the first few to get him broke in then I would take him and enjoy it.

I would say take him. I took my Chololate lab out teal hunting when he was 7 months. I would say go for it to see how he does and get him ready for duck season.

Thanks for all the input guys!!! We went and scouted our place yesterday and ended up seeing several hunderds of birds...so ive decided to just take everything slowly with him, dont wanna rush things too fast...im nervous about howd he'd do with several gun shots going off... so im just gunna go out with just my buddies for the opener and then the following sunday take the pup and my girlfriend out there for hopefully a decent shoot. I think it would be best to work him under the least pressure as possible. I can work my pup 1 on 1 and work the girlfriend on shooting at the same time :D