POWELL BUTTE – ”Whoa!” barks Gene Adams in a firm, authoritative voice.

Roscoe stops dead in his tracks, seemingly frozen.

Adams pulls a live pigeon out of the coop and holds it about five feet in front of the 13-month-old liver-colored German shorthaired pointer, who doesn’t move a muscle but eyes the bird intently.

No matter how badly the dog wants the bird, ”whoa!” means stop and stay, and that’s just what Roscoe does.

Adams raises his hand, and Roscoe runs to his master. A sharp command of ”heel!” and Roscoe is at Adams’ side.

While most of Adams’ bird dogs have been bred from top bird-hunting lineage, any dog owner can train his or her best friend to be reliable in the field, while in the process developing a strong bond with their pet.

Adams, who trains all pointing breeds at his Powell Butte home and guides at a hunting preserve near Condon in north-central Oregon, says that if bird dogs are brought up and trained properly, they’ll love to hunt more than they love to eat.

”I have this Purina mix that gives them a boost when hunting,” Adams says. ”But if they see somebody pick up a shotgun, they’ll spit it out and get ready to go. They wanna work.”

Adams says that owners should start training their dogs at about 6 to 7 months old. Before then, the dogs should get plenty of socialization with other canines, which he says makes them easier to train. Owners should never play ”tug of war” with their puppies, because then the dogs will want to do the same with birds, according to Adams.

And the first thing a bird-hunting dog should learn in training is not ”sit,” but ”whoa.”

”The biggest mistake I see is people with pointing dogs who always want to teach them to sit,” Adams says. ”If you teach them to sit, they’ll want to sit when they should whoa.”

Adams says the next command dogs should learn is ”come” or ”here.” Owners can teach their dogs to come and halt by using a 20-foot rope lead, or leash, with the collar tighter and farther forward on the dog’s neck than normal.

To teach the dog to come, owners should give the lead a quick, short tug when they say ”here” or ”come,” then praise the dog when it comes.

To teach a dog to stop and stay put, owners can put the dog on the lead beside them, reach down and give a short tug backward then give the ”whoa” command. Then they can touch the dog or say the dog’s name to allow them to go forward.

Adams says that owners should keep training sessions short, only about two to five minutes at a time, with rest periods of at least 40 minutes. As many sessions per day as possible is most effective, Adams says.

When Adams is finished training a dog, that dog will be able to stand ”steady to wing,” or standing on point until the bird flies.

The dog will also stand ”steady to shot,” or standing still after the hunter shoots the bird and the bird hits the ground.

When Adams wants one of his dogs to retrieve a bird, he will either touch the dog, raise his hand over his head or call the dog’s name.

Adams advises using reward-based training with treats for puppies, but shortly thereafter, he says, all rewards are in the form of praise.

The trainer explains that while correcting a dog is an important aspect of training, striking a dog is unacceptable.

”I don’t care if it eats your wife’s favorite shoes,” Adams says, ”all you’ve done is create a dog who is more apprehensive, harder to train, and will have problems down the road.”

To correct a dog, Adams advises using a squirt of water from a spray bottle when the dog does not respond to a command, or saying ”no” in a voice just loud enough to get the dog’s attention. Adams also uses a low-vibration collar to correct his dogs, but he warns that the collar works only if the dog already understands the commands.

”The biggest thing is to be consistent and relate to the dog in a way it understands,” Adams explains.

Adams – who owns Stormy Weather Kennels – owns and trains mostly German shorthaired pointers and English pointers. These breeds are used mostly in upland bird hunting for chukar, pheasant, partridge and quail.

One of Adams’ dogs, Maya, is a 6-month-old German shorthaired that he describes as ”just a sweetheart who spends all day in your pocket.”

Adams shouts ”whoa” and throws a live pigeon in the air that flies right by Maya. But the dog stands still, disciplined as ever.

Some dogs stand on point naturally, Adams says, but others have to be encouraged in training.

He explains that, when on point, dogs want to catch the bird but realize they cannot, and they are plotting how to do so as they stand there.

While pointing is mostly natural, Adams teaches his dogs to retrieve the way most dog owners do: by using dummies or toys for the dog to fetch.

Once a hunter is ready to take a trained dog into the field, the months of hard work begin to pay off: in birds.

”To me, hunting is a reward for all the training,” Adams says. ”I live the whole year waiting for next bird season. I love to big-game hunt, but bird hunting is my passion.”