Texas was 4 1/2 months old, a black-and-white cross between an English pointer and an English setter. Out of the dog box, he shivered in the morning air.

Steve Jarvis tied hay bale cord to the end of his leash. After weeks of play, it was time to get serious with the pup.

“This pup is going to meet his first bird today,” Jarvis said.

In July 2011, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife adopted new rules for hunting-dog and raptor training. Input was taken from an advisory group that included hunting-dog trainers, game bird propagators, shooting preserve operators, falconers, hunters, bird conservationists, Oregon State Police and ODFW to allow dog and raptor trainers to release game birds and train their charges year-round. The details can be found in the 2012-13 Oregon Game Bird Regulations and on the ODFW website.

Jarvis, a transplant from East Texas, has taken over management of the hunting preserve that is White River Outfitters (www.stevejarvishuntingguide.com) located in Tygh Valley. He pointed to Oregon’s enhanced training rules as a way for hunters and trainers to work year-round to take young pups like Tex from the kennel to field-ready in October.

Levi, 17, held the check cord while Jarvis walked into the tall grass and hid the crate that held two rooster pheasants.

Then Jarvis returned to the truck and opened the boxes to let loose a Hungarian vizsla, a German shorthair, and Danny, the English cocker spaniel.

“I want to see Tex run to the bird instead of away from it. I want him to see the older dogs on point.”

On my arm I held my double gun stocked with No. 6s.

“It’s really good if the pup gets to see a bird go down when he hears that first gun shot.” Jarvis gave me a meaningful look. I had been warned. It was my job to knock the bird down if it escaped.

When Tex got his first scent of rooster, he forgot that he was cold, that he was scared. Centuries of breeding told in the way he pulled against the leash. Levi gave him a bit more rope and when the older dogs charged after the freed pheasant, the younger dog was right behind them.

For a moment, the dogs held their point and then Danny, the English cocker, busted in and flushed the rooster. No one told me to shoot, but my own instinct took over and I used a European shotgun to knock the Chinese rooster down in front of my audience of Old World hounds.

Tex wanted to be right in the middle of the action. “He ran to the bird, he didn’t flinch at the shot, he’s excited. That dog is going to be a good one.”

For the next two hours, we hunted pheasants in the rough along the creek. On every point and every flush, the young dog was allowed a little more lead.

“I will make that rope 75 feet long,” Jarvis said, “but I won’t let him off the rope until I am confident he is going to point.”

One pheasant flushed wild ahead of the dogs, and we watched it go without firing a shot.

“No bird.” The older dogs circled back while Levi reined the young one in. It was a good lesson.

Jarvis smiled at the bird that got away. That was one rooster that might make it through to summer, might meet up with a few of the wild hens that make a living along the White River in Tygh Valley.

At the end of the morning’s session, Lucy, the vizsla, pointed a rooster that jumped up out of the grass to perch in a tree right on the bank of the creek.

Lucy sat beneath the tree and yipped to let us know the bird was upstairs and she continued to yip until we were close. When the rooster flushed, we let it cross the creek then dropped it on the other side.

The German shorthair and the English cocker swam the creek with their master to make the retrieve while Tex looked on. With a spring and summer to train, he will be in fine form come October.