Training a dog

[TheGillz]

Hands down the best training guide money can buy. These monks have been raising and training shepherds for many years.

How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Training Manual for Dog Owners

http://www.amazon.com/How-Your-Dogs...bs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205190043&sr=8-2

We have used the principles to train our 10 month old Newf, notoriously sweet but stubborn breed, just last night I was marveling at the heel she was able to do with my 35lb 6 year old daughter, never left her side the whole 2 mile walk home from the park. She will even heel with me pretty well sans leash, although we have just started on that. I can't recomend it highly enough.

For more speciallized birding and what not I don't know, but to start, you should deffinately read and practice their practices to begin to know the new member of your family.

 

[crawler#976]

My best advise is to be very, very consistent in your commands - that means everyone in the family MUST use the same commands, similar tone of voice if possible, and gestures for hand signals as the training progresses. It will keep the dog from being confused. Hours of consistent repetition will produce outstanding results.

Labs are highly motivated by food - I still keep a pocket full of small bite dog food in my pocket as motivation.

We used the Arizona Dog Whisperer last year to assist us in training our last rescued Lab. He'd had no training, and at 6 was pretty well set in his ways. He responded very well to the training, and it's allowed me to continue his education with more traditional means. The whole idea of pack mentality is pretty neat, but doesn't take the place of the obedience training needed in a gun dog.

I prefer to have my dogs obey hand signals vs. a clicker or whistle - to me it's a necessity. My last dear boy Chaco went deaf due to a vet using a product that is supposed to clean and disinfect ears. It has a 1 in 1000 chance of causing deafness, and in his case it did. He was only 8 at the time, and without being fully versed in hand signals would have been lost. Of course he figured out that if he didn't look at me, he didn't have to do anything...

Mark

 

[Dave]

I also REALLY like "The Labrador Shooting Dog" buy Mike Gould. It is a great read.

Funny you should bring that one up. I was at the local Border's a few weeks ago and that was the ONLY retriever book they had on the shelf. I couldn't believe it was their only option, but I am picking it up this week.

Wrap your mind around using a electronic collar. Either you will, or you won't. Don't punish your dog later by "not" using it now and find out later that you want to. I highly recommend the proper use of an e-collar. We can go more into that later if you are struggling with it.

An e-collar is something I have already decided to use and I will be doing my homework on how to use it and when to use it. I know they can be a fantastic training tool in the right hands.

I would then decide on one of two programs. Smartworks or Training with Mike Lardy. And stick with the program. Don't use some of this and some of that. They are both well proven and fanatastic training devices. They are the only two I would recommend.

I have read a lot about Smartworks but I had not heard of Training with Mike Lardy. I am planning on going with the Smartworks planning as that came highly recommended by the breeder.

After that, enjoy your new dog for the first year of it's life. (well hopefully for many years) Let it play and grow and teach it to become a good citizen. Start teaching obedience from the moment you bring him home but leave the discipline for later. Play fetch, let it follow you around, go swimming...Just don't push to hard to fast.

Thank you for the advice. On another forum that is hunting specific, I read a pretty good thread written by a guy who went to fast with his dog. There were definitely some solid lessons to be learned in his write up. I've actually printed it and added it to my file.

here's my two pride and joys, Diesel at 10 months and Cruiser at 6 years

Fantastic dogs! I love yellow labs. We just don't see many around here for some reason.

Neat looking sneak boat you've got there too!

 

[Dave]

Also, thank you to everyone for chiming in with training tips or reading material suggestions. They have all be every helpful!

 

[the dude]

Mike Gould just has a way about his ability to write that I really enjoyed. He comes across as a very down-to-earth sort of fellow. I started off in the field trial and hunt test circles and quickly fell away from it. just not my style. I want my dogs to perform, but I didn't like the politics and elitism. His book brought me back to reality. Although I follow the Lardy training for my dogs, a lot of what Gould says and does makes a lot of sense.

Smartworks is an excellent choice.

The boat is a hand made (by yours truly) Devlin Broadbill stitch and glue design sneak boat. I love it. I can't wait until time permits to build a tender and ditch the Lund. Me and the dogs both feel safer in the sneak boat then in the Lund on those ruff days.

 

[FlyingWen]

Man..... I want a puppy now!!!
Wil trained Service Dog and Police K-9s in college up in Prescott, AZ

 

[Dave]

10 days old

:jump:

 

[Beerman]

While choosing a training program, you should be realistic about what you are looking for in a hunting dog, and about your abilities as a trainer. Wolters books are great for a person who is looking for a "Meat Dog" A meat dog is one which will bring you your game but may not have the flair of a competition trained dog. If you are looking to compete in any of the dog games (Field Trials, Hunt Tests) you will want to use either Smartworks by Evan Graham or Mike Lardy's retriever training materials. Both of these programs have produced champion quality dogs. I recommend going to RetrieverTraining.net. Evan Graham is a regular poster over there and he is great about helping. Another great resource is finding a retriever club in your area. This will put you in contact with many people who have a lot of experience training competition quality dogs.

 

[Dave]

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Louie!

 

[the dude]

great looking pup!!

 

[Dave]

great looking pup!!

Thanks! He's doing pretty good so far. The first night was rough, didn't get much sleep. He did 10x better last night. Thankfully, our older border collie has accepted him as part of the family.

 

[jeeperaz]

That bird toy above looks familiar....

 

[Dave]

Just thought I'd throw out an update on Louie. He'll be five months old next week and is going through a pretty intense teething stage right now. He's handling it pretty good, but I know it's bothering him. He's been a real hoot as a general pet/companion and is growing like a weed. He's up to 40 pounds and is just about as big as our seven year old border collie. He's taken to water and will swim just for the fun of swimming, even in cooler water.

His retrieving is really starting to develop. This past weekend, it seems like a switch went off. He would always retrieve, but he never showed any great desire in the act of retrieving...more so just wanted to go get his toy/bumper/whatever. He'd hustle out to it and then would normally just run around the yard. We wouldn't chase him, that's what he wanted. Instead we just left him alone. Basically saying that if he wasn't going to play by our rules, then play time was over.

Sit, stay, and here are the three biggies we're fine tuning right now. Sit is about 95%, here is not quite there but getting better every day and really improved the last week or so. Stay he picked up on real fast. He'll "sit & stay" until released, even when his food bowl or a treat is on the floor for him. He'll even sit and stay right beside me while I'm throwing the ball for our border collie. Hell, last night I even sat him down in the front room, told him to stay, and then walked out the front door to my get something out of my truck. He was still sitting in the same spot when I came back through the front door. He got a treat for that one!

This weekend he really starting showing some drive when it came to the actual retrieving. We were on a canoe trip and I was just casually tossing bumpers for him in the river. On one of the tosses, I noticed he really charged out and back. So I threw a few more, working on sitting, staying, and release. He charged hard through all of them (!!!) and was really putting on a show. He was bucking through the shallow water and swimming hard in the deeper water. By the time we got the camera out and figured out how to put it in video mode, his interest was waning, but he still did as he was told after a little encouragement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZRa7duD7TA

(Awful video quality, I know. It was shot with a P&S Pentax that we use mostly just for taking pictures on paddling trips)

We put the bumper away after that toss since he was starting to lose interest.

Last night we worked some more in the yard and he was charging hard again, both on the run out and run back. I really think something must have clicked this weekend because it's almost a night and day difference.