Lab training question

[Andrew8235]

i have a 2 year old black lab and i have really been wanting to get him trained up for waterfowl this year. i wanted to know has anyone had success training a dog that age. also does anyone know of any good training programs that i can do at home myself. i should have access to do training with the gun but again i would like to get a good program or advise to help out with it.

[CP]

You could write a book on the subject (or several).  This is a good one:

http://www.gundogsupply.com/b10mirehowto.html

[Stilly bay]

how is his basic obedience?

[Andrew8235]

his basic obedience is ok, it has room for improvement but overall it is pretty good

[Stilly bay]

concentrate on getting his obedience rock solid and the rest will go much smoother. Obedience is the least fun to work on but it really pays off big in the end.

[rtspring]

My wifes lab was 5 when I trained him!  Lots of work. Take it slow. Baby steps!  Lots of reward and praise! Took me six months....  Hes a great duck dog now!!  But mostly he lays around and well licks himself!!   

[Andrew8235]

thats good to hear, any specific training programs used?

[rtspring]

Nope. I started with basic commands. Then moved up a little every week, I spent atleast an hour everyday working the dog one on one. 

[Stilly bay]

thats good to hear, any specific training programs used?

first get an E-collar. You don't need anything fancy, a tritronics sport will be more than adequate.


Stay away from the Richard Wolters books.

 James B. Spencer puts out quite a few books that are pretty easy for a beginner to digest, "training Retrievers for marshes and meadows" was fairly comprehensive and straight forward.
one of my favorites is "The Labrador shooting dog" by Mike Gould.
really there are so many great books and programs out there your choices are vast. The best thing you could do for yourself and your dog is hook up with an experienced training group. 

A good DVD series that puts out a good easy to follow outline is "Fowl Dogs"

[Andrew8235]

i started him with a SD-400 and moved to a SD-1825 and used the videos included from sport dog.

[JJD]

A dog that starts training older than a pup will take more time, as has been suggested, take it slow.

While e-collars are a great tool, you can not teach a dog anything with one, you can only reinforce what they have already been taught.  Get a good book or DVD that explains collar conditioning and use in detail,  Study it and THEN make a decision to purchase one.  To strap one on a dog without knowledge of proper use will cause you way more problems than it will cure.

[Andrew8235]

Absolutely, i got that quite some time ago and began basic commands with a simple lead and collar before i even thought of getting the e collar.

[Shannon]

Smart Fetch by Evan Graham is a great series of video's and books for training a retriever.