Bought birds to train a bird dog?

[BigGame]

Update: I got out this morning at dawn and was at least able to find a few grouse. Unfortunately, the only times we found them were when driving on the road, not when we were walking the roads. I tried the scramble-from-the-car drill a couple times, but that was a losing battle. I'll consider it a win simply for finding an area that seems to hold a few birds. With the forest about to fill up with deer hunters, I think I will focus on getting a few planted birds for him to continue his training.

Comments on your good replies:

If you happen to belong to a gun club, take your dog there when there's shooting.

maybe start out with a toy cap gun, and use it when feeding him or giving a treat, also when playing fetch.

use a cap gun and fire it at unexpected times outside and in the house etc and often.

All good ideas that I will use.

Most pointing dogs don't need to be taught how to point. They get excited about a bird on the ground and that's that, it's instinct.

He has a pretty firm and obvious point, which is fun to watch both in the field and the back yard. I just need to get him the experience of knowing what I want him to point...

Get a "Hearing Aid" (i.e. shock collar). You don't know what a dog is going to do once your'e out hunting.

I have an electronic collar and he wears it in the field, but I'm usually just using the vibrate and tone features, which are enough to get his attention. Thankfully, he's pretty good at returning to me and not ranging too far, or stopping when he is and I give him a command.

The fee pheasant hunts are great for training.

From there, I moved to capturing pigeons and planted them in the field. One can swirl their heads, tuck the head under the wing, and they usually stay there until the dog flushes them. Optionally, you can buy game birds. I raised some that were given by ODFW as long as I promised to release a certain percentage into the wild. Not everybody has a place to keep penned birds tho.

Here is the way I did it with my red dog. I took a whole bufflehead duck and shoved it into a set of womens nylons, then I tied off the ends and stuck it in the freezer until it was rock solid.
You can leave one side long as a sling type handle. Then, you can sling that dummy a mile.

I'm going to look into planted birds of some kind. The frozen-bird-in-nylons trick is also a keeper.

look for a grouse wing collection barrel. Park a ways downwind and sneak(literally) slowly with your dog and gun in hand. Helps if the barrel actually has sacks of wings in it.

This is a really funny image. I'm sure the rangers at the station in Ripplebrook would love this, as the barrel is right in front of their office. Plus one for creativity on this one.

Thanks all.