Trained dog?

[95powersmoker]

Hi guys,

I don't post a lot but I need some guidance. I paid to have my dog trained at a training kennel for 10 weeks. She was 6-8 months old during that time. When we picked her up, we weren't super impressed with "all the new things she learned". She was bird crazy but her recall was terrible (still had to be on a check cord), and her hold was less than stellar. I hope I'll get responses that help zero me out because I'm frustrated that I spent good money to have her "trained" and now back in my house for 4 weeks and working with her every day to have made very little progress over the last 3-4 months. I'm about to call the kennel owner and talk to them about what I paid the money for if it wasn't really for training. I know food doesn't cost what I paid and I'm pretty certain my dog wasn't treated like she was at the day spa.

Any words of wisdom is appreciated.

[Old Dog]

I don't know what the trainer offered you, but you can't fully train a bird dog in just 10 weeks.   :twocents

[h2ofowlr]

Your pup might have a good base now.  May require another tune up in 6-8 months.  I have a few friends that drop their dogs off for a month prior to the season each year for a tune up.

I just picked up a new pup in early July.  He now knows to sit, stay, mark, fetch it up, release and no.  Work with him twice a day.

[scottcrb]

Might just be some adjustment time for your puppy to understand you and your commands over the kennel trainer. Pm me I know a training group in your area that meets twice a week.

[Colin]

2.5 months of training isn't much and at that age I'd expect Force Fetch completed. Possibly some Collar Conditioning and some Obedience. What did your trainer say he taught the dog? What were your expectations for the amount of training time?

PM me who the trainer is.

[95powersmoker]

I wasn't expecting a fully finished dog ready to run field trials. I know 10 weeks is a short amount of time. I was expecting 10 weeks would be enough time to get a dog that could go get a bird and bring it back to me. Before she went, she knew sit, stay, down, heel.

I work with her every morning and night for 10-20 minutes or i see she is starting to get bored or hard headed. In the morning, we do obedience and at night, i try working on her holds.

She struggles with holding because she likes to clamp down on the dummy. She also has very little recall control. This morning, I threw her one fun dummy after heel, here, sit, stay work and she took it and ran off and I couldn't recall her for the life of me. I think i just expected that she would have a halfway decent base from the training but I feel as though I am still working on the bird dog 101 and I have a lot less money in my pocket.

Scottcrb, I will PM you now. Would be nice to get some help from somebody who knows how to work through these things.

[jackson7]

She is still a baby. 10 weeks is just an introduction to birds and hunting. She now has a good base to build upon. continue working on manners at home. try to lower your expectations and just get her out a lot this season. You will see improvement each time. Good luck.

[Bluemoon]

As a trainer. I also would like to know who had your dog...please pm.me as well.

[95powersmoker]

Any advice on recall training. Right now, that is the biggest thing that has me up in arms. I have been making her sit and pulling on a long lead and giving her #1 on the collar pressure and saying here and then praising the heck out of her. The next thing would be her clamping down on the dummy. I'm thinking a hard dummy or a frozen bird may stop that? Worth a shot?

[NW-GSP]

I have never understood the idea of sending a dog off to a trainer for a " tune up" if it's for basic obedience. most issues the dog is having is due to the owner otherwise the dog wouldn't be needing a " tune up".
I could understand for pointing dogs and just getting them on birds

[WRL]

Couple of questions:

Retriever or pointer?

What did the trainer tell you would be done in the 10 weeks? (or your understanding of what would be done)

How old is your dog?

WRL

[Happy Gilmore]

never seen a navy seal made in 10 weeks.

[Copperwood]

Like many others have said after 10 weeks your pup is probably  still  rough around the edges. I would say 100% call the kennel and talk to them. They'll have a much better idea of how to get you in the right direction and also, if the dog is lacking in a specific area, it gives the kennel the opportunity to make it right.

[95powersmoker]

never seen a navy seal made in 10 weeks.

Got that, but we are talking dogs, not Seals. Haha

Couple of questions:

Retriever or pointer?

What did the trainer tell you would be done in the 10 weeks? (or your understanding of what would be done)

How old is your dog?

WRL

She's a black lab. When she went off to training, she was 6 1/2 months old. She is now 9 months old. They told me that they would get her through her hold and into a point where she would be delivering back to hand pretty consistently. I figured that would be a dog that could mark and retrieve and bring the bird back to me with little problem. I guess I have 90% of that. The dog is crazy to retrieve. She just needs work on the delivering it back to me. She also needs to be finished on the holding and not chewing on the dummy part. Lastly, she consistently blows off "here" calls which I figured would have been part of that training over a 10 wk period. She was pretty consistent when she left for training. I did a lot of obedience with her before hand, I was figuring they would continue that but I'm not sure that they did really any. Here's the thing, if she was too young or that wasn't enough time, they should have told me that. Instead, they told me they were getting the dog at the perfect time because that's when they are really developing. I understand too that each dog learns at a different pace and my dog may even be a dud. That's fine too. My biggest thing is I got my dog back and have called the trainer and the owner multiple times to find out what to do next, how do I keep working towards a good handling dog? I have received zero help.

I appreciate the opinions of everybody on this board. I have calmed down since i started this thread. It's still frustrating but I think it's ultimately a learning experience for me and her. I don't think I will ever send a dog to a trainer as my dog would be in pretty much the same position that she is now if I hadn't and probably better off because I could have used that large sum of money to buy more training tools for myself. I'll just have to lower my expectations a bit and understand that she is just a pup.

[WRL]

So they did not show you what was done and what was not? Hmmm.....

Well, I don't think those expectations are too out of line so....are they not returning phone calls? Will not communicate with you?

WRL