I have been hiding quail around the property the past couple days, getting the little mongrel excited about finding things. She is natural pointer, goes on point as soon as she smelled them at first without even knowing why. They are penned quail for falcon food, not fliers, so when she would find them I would pick them up and let her inspect. She was a little nervous at first, but yesterday she finally worked up the gumption to grab one (and chomp of its head) and is now SOOOO excited about things. Very different than my German dogs who at this age had 0 hesitation about chomping anything that moved.
I have been running her around in the sage brush a little, too. Run my older griff with the falcon for actual hunting, then Ill bring her out with the griff just to take in some smells and build some confidence. She locked up on the sage brush where the grouse we had flushed 15 minutes early when hunting had been. Beautiful point, without even knowing why she was doing it.
We actually lost one pre head chomp out in the high grass of the pasture yesterday. A few hours later, I had all the dogs out on a walk down to the river and guess who found it - the little kid! Her tail started going and she locked up - walked over and the lost quail jumped up right where she was pointing.
Here are a couple semi-pathetic points. Never seem to have the camera out when she has a classic pose.