Resources for training water dog

[Stein]

Hey, it looks like we will be getting a lab shortly and I was wondering what resources I should check out to learn about training.  I plan to train the dog myself, what books/dvd/websites should I be looking at?

[mburrows]

A lot of good resources out there, i like the Tom Dokken dvds/videos. I  think patience is the most important thing when working with a young dog. That and keeping it fun for them.

If youve never trained a dog, getting with a trainer for a little bit to learn hands on how to train a dog can be helpful too. Worked for a trainer in high school and learned a ton from him about retreiver behavior and other nuances with your specific dog a video may over look.

Good luck and have fun with it!

[Commando]

I liked following fowl dawgs by stawski. I had never trained a lab before and found his program very easy to follow for the begginer trainer. I also got lardys first article series and that helped out alot as well. With that said I am planning on getting mike lardys while series and use that now. I had his ecollar training DVD and really liked it. I also like to look at the retrievetraining.com website. There is a load of info over there. I like to read more than post over there but still like the website, between that site and this one all your questions can and will be answered.

[JJD]

My  worth;

Is this your first retriever?
What are your goals, do you plan on trials or tests?
Strictly a blind dog, maybe some upland bird hunting?
How much time can you spend 3 to 4 days a week?
Are you a patient person?

There are a number of good programs out there but some may be geared towards goals you have no interest in and require time you don't have.
Knowing the above might help in suggesting a program that will get you where you want to go.
 

[Waldo84]

Good luck with your pup. They are a lot of fun! I am currently training a 10.5 month old and a 13 week old pup and I started them both with Bill Hillmann's "Training a Retriever Puppy, Revised edition". With my 10.5 month old pup I switched him to Mike Lardy's program when he was ready to begin the Force Fetch process. If you have any questions on whether or not you should Force Fetch a dog or not..... DO IT! It's a very necessary part of retriever training, especially if you plan on teaching your dog to do blind retrieves. If you follow Bill Hillmann's method of teaching your puppy to fetch out of your hand and off the ground, then you should absolutely breeze through the first few stages of traditional Force Fetch and it will actually be an enjoyable process for you and your dog.

I would encourage you to take a look at different programs and try to figure out which method and philosophy works best for you and your puppy. Also, even if you are planning on using this pup as "just" a meat dog, try to train him to his full potential. Once you have a dog who can line up for a downed bird that he did not see fall and will follow your directions to the bird, you'll be glad you did.

I too am doing the bulk of training on my own, but have also talked to and trained with a pro trainer on the weekends. The information they have and the resources they can share with you will help out tremendously. Also look into local Retriever training clubs and try to find a "training day" that they may have in the spring time. As mentioned by someone else, www.retrievertraining.net is dedicated to the training of retrievers for waterfowl hunting, Hunt tests and Field Trials. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions since I'm currently in two separate stages of pupy training (10.5 month old working on double and triple marks, pattern blinds and blind drills, and a 13 week old puppy who just started "training" last week).

One last tip: www.Bowwowflix.com allows you to pay a monthly membership to rent training videos. They offer most of the popular and modern training videos including the ones I mentioned above. Though you can find fairly inexpensive DVD's like Fowl Dawgs, the Bill Hillmann DVD's and Mike Lardy series are more spendy. But a few hundred dollars for DVD's is way less expensive than sending your pup to a trainer for a minimum of 3-6 months. Just something to think about when looking at prices of a training series of DVD's.

Enjoy the process!

[de0827]

I used Training Your Retriever by James Lamb Free on both labs I trained.  It is very old (the first lab I trained was 28 years ago!), but it worked well for me.