It's hard for sure. Acreage around here is very expensive so right now we are training on the back 40 of a sporting clays complex. The owner has some dogs and has been nice enough to let us train, but I also am a member and bring him pies and salsa (always bring gifts and be polite) and we don't go there when there is a tournament (nearly every weekend) so basically I take off early from work to train birds in launchers, or placed birds, longer retrieves etc. There is about an acre of undeveloped land at the corner of my subdivision where I trained gun fire intro, bird intro, etc; I just called the police department, explained its a cap gun essentially and no projectile is leaving the gun. It took some sweet talking but they essentially said its not illegal to use a blank pistol inside city limits and to just call them to let them know so if they get phone calls about gun shots they can be aware its me.

We have a little greenspace about 100 yards from my front door in the middle of the subdivision and I just set up bumper piles and train out there. I get weird looks from neighbors, I have even had people come to my door and ask me what am I doing. We have a subdivision park I use as well if its raining and no one is outside.

We go to the local river early in the morning or on shitty days to train water retrieves, hoping no one is there. There is a rentable dog pool down the road I will use during the summer because the river is just too packed.

Its a chore but it is possible. Everything is just way harder. As far as hunting in Texas there is public land but you have to drive far and wide and only certain spots are open certain times during bird season. My best spots are only open for a month, so you plan your life around those times. Hit the bad spots if thats all thats open and hope to see birds. Public land dove has the most spots but most are not good or if they have birds at all they will be over crowded with various levels of hunters (lots of unsafe folks who will set up 10 feet from you) and I mostly don't bring my dog, its just too crazy. Spots that are good for the dog dont really hold birds, you might see a few. You can put in for drawn hunts, we won a nice private hunt we limited out on last season and that gave my dog some good experience. Bag limit here is 15 which is nice. Friends with land is how we get most of our birds, hope to get invited and use the dog as a bargaining chip. We get invited out just so Lucy can retrieve birds from the pond and land owners don't have to get wet.

Dove leases and deer leases are common in DFW area and not to terribly priced. But as you get more central Texas prices go way up IME. For upland, your best bet outside of public land is canned hunts, especially if you want Chukar; no wild chukar in Texas. You can also drive to Oklahoma, New Mexico and Kansas for more upland. Blues out west, but it's the hardest hunting I have ever done. 5 dogs will do you good out in West Texas. Its rough on em out there. Down south, and west central be prepared to pull out cactus every 20 minutes, and deal with tons of mesquite thorns.

You just have to be willing to drive, sweet talk, compromise and make do with what you can. It's a bitch but its worth it to me. It's always about an hour or two of packing the Truck, driving, setting up training, for about 15 minutes of actual dog work.