First pheasant hunt - V successful

good question jas ... I'm not sure. the lady that trained rio was of the opinion that the younger the better. for example, rio was use to running and playing at dog parks before we sent him to liz - so his mind / behaviour was that of a family pet only focused on having fun. liz spent quite a bite of time getting him to concentrate on working and not playing. she would say that "rio needs to be more business-like" ... b/c he now has a job to do. so i can assume that if we got him out before 12 months - he (and us) would be better suited to have him in the field.

fyi - since we got him back - he hasn't been going to the dog parks. it's a bit more work - but we take him to open fields and walk him more in the neighbourhood. the way i look at it - not going to dog parks will save us $$$ on vet bills - he's picked up ear / eye infections from the parks.

isn't it amazing to see them out in the field doing what the breed does best (aside from sleeping on the couch). even cooler is seeing them work with other dogs. we didn't see any rabbits - just birds, would to see how a V gets on one. how is oscar's recall when he's not in the field?

Whether or not to let him chase them around is a debatable topic.
I personally have never had a problem with letting a pup just go "bird crazy", but I have always used pen raised birds in training sessions to steady the point and develop the whoa command in parallel with letting them go nuts in the field.
Eventually he will leave the spaniels,and hunt on his own. Then his natural pointer tendancies will develop. At first he'll only point for a few seconds, and once the pheasant runs he'll definitely break and run it down, so you'll have to be ready to start helping him develop the point. Keep it fun.
At 7 months he may not be able to run that bird down yet, but he will eventually,a nd that's why you'll want to begin to steady him on point so that he doesn't break.

If the pheasants you are hunting are pen raised,their flight abilities will be severly limited, if not non-existent. They'll run first and fly as a last result, they also won't fly far. Use this as an opportunity to develop Oscar's foot scent and tracking abilities. A dog that can handle cripples is an asset( Not all dogs do it, and some are very poor at it). The pheasant running will simulate a cripple.
If the bird flies, use it as an opportunity to keep getting Oscar on birds, even if it is the same bird. keep pushing that bird all over the place to give Oscar more time on it.
The more opportunity Oscar has to handle birds the better, and next year you'll have a hunting machine.

A full grown pheasant can be a little intimidating to a young dog. As long as Oscar is willing to go with it and get after them, let him.
Watch for that first encounter with a live pheasant when he tries to pick up a live, or crippled pheasant. Make sure it ends on a positve for him, even if you have to step in and dispatch the bird for him. Toss it for him to retrieve and let him carry around the dead birds for a few moments. Vizsla's like to "Display" their success. They're big showoffs in my experience.