Pup update

[Pete112288]

So I first posted about getting a pup back in the spring or early summer. I was gifted a purebred black lab pup, first pick of the litter too. I brought her home end of Aug or so. Several members on here insisted I share pictures and make updates as I planned on working on training her myself. I had posted a few things right away but then got wrapped up in life and forgot.
She is a complete spit-fire crackhead. Haha. But I love her. Daisy, but sometimes I wonder why she doesn't think her name is crackhead. She is full of energy and I swear, if nothing else is going to, then she will be what gets me into shape. Take her on walks regularly and she does so on a leash wonderfully. Often we do 2 or 3 miles, with me jogging/running a couple blocks here and there and her looking at me like "thats all ya got?"
Then we will come right back from the walk and she will be standing at the back door staring at the frisbee.
She knows when its work time vs play time extremely well. We have 3 modes, water dog training, shed dog training, and play & fetch.
When its a ball or frisbee she knows its just play and she can run off after it when I throw it and just have fun, besides chewing on them, that's not allowed.
When the bumpers/dummies come out. She will hustle over and sit just to my right hand side and wait. I can taunt her with it if I want to and she wont budge, I throw it and she stays, even if I throw a second she stays, and you can watch her, her focus goes from where one landed to where the other landed. She keeps a vigil on anything I throw. Then on the command "stack em" she takes off straight line there and back. We are still working on getting her to retrieve the farthest "bird" first but she is picking it up well. She also knows to stop and sit upon a single whistle blast and she will do so staring right at me for direction. She is still just learning the hand signals, but I feel like she is doing great.
I have several sheds that I cut into more managable sizes and sanded the points and rough edges. All I have to do is say "find the shed" and she is off. She will work back and fourth in wide swaths, but once she catches a smell you can tell. She stops and starts doing circles that get smaller and smaller till she finds it. She can do this all day if I let her haha.
The old grump of a dog we had before (half boxer half lab) has kind of an older sibling relationship with her. Sometimes they are all over eachother, play or cuddle, other times all she has to do is touch him and he groans and goes to find somewhere else to be.
I was given a TON of advice and warnings and everything from people on here, and was even given a copy of "Water Dog" by a member. I want to thank everyone, she is turning out to be so much more than I thought I would be able to make her into.
Also, she loves water right out the gate and will get amped up if we start to play in any water. And there is a trap club about a mile away that we will walk by on our walks. I gradually would alter our walks closer and closer. So far I have been able to walk down the sidewalk 20 yards behind the shooters and she doesnt jump or have any issues at all with the noise of the gunshots.
She is getting better but I do wish I could slow her eating a bit, she doesent eat so fast she throws up, but just fast enough that she would if it wasnt for us using a slow feed bowl.
But if we just have to always use the slow feed bowl then so be it. She has slowed enough though and can take even a small treat from my hand without getting me with her teeth or anything, its just meal times she is still high speed with. So anyone have any tips there?

She is so energetic and eager to please. A little play, a little training, and a little running every day and she is so good. She is a little more of a delinquent when I am not around, she does not listen to the wife quite as well, but we are working on that. She works with my son pretty well on training though, so when I am not around he takes her out back and works with her.
She also can be a bit of a knucklehead if she does not burn enough energy in a day. But that is something I expected and its mutually beneficial as I could use a little exercise as well.
Now for the best part. I will post some of her in action soon, but for now, here is her showing you how hard her life is.

[Skyvalhunter]

How old is the old Grump?

[jagermiester]

So cool.
Thanks for sharing such an awesome update, sounds like she is going to be a great dog. Her coat looks awesome. Try adding warm water to her food might help the whole situation. Eventually she will slow down her eating. Maybe when she’s 10 or 12

[Pete112288]

How old is the old Grump?

He is 8 or 9 if I am remembering correctly. The pup is roughly 5 months.

Here are some in action pictures, her doing what she loves to do.

[DIron]

Heartbreaker right there. That is a cutie.

[Pete112288]

Heartbreaker right there. That is a cutie.

Thanks, she sure pulls on the strings alright.

Here she is on the newest challenge. Learning to get the dummy and not the deeks. Didnt take much for her to catch on.

[Smokepole]

That book by Wolters is the best.  I've trained four labs after reading it, and they all turned out great.  I can see it's working its magic on your pup. 

Our yellow "pup" is almost 3 now, and she still eats fast.  Be careful not to feed her right after or before workouts.  I give Tig 1 biscuit and fresh water after a workout, then feed her kibble no less than 1/2 hour afterward.  Otherwise she pukes.  In summer, she takes a quick swim in the creek after every workout to cool down.

One other tidbit of advice, make sure your wife and son use the same one-word commands, tone of voice, and hand signals that you use.  And rules are rules, so make sure everyone in the family is on the same page.  Be sure they know that Daisy is a dog for the whole family, and fill  them in on what you've learned from Wolters - if you haven't already.

One mistake I made... when I was gone working, my kids and their friends would be tossing sticks for my chocolate lab all day long.  The dog loved it, but she was shot by the end of each day.  The family would take her to the swimming hole and everyone there would fall in love and play stick in the water.  Poor dog didn't know when to quit.  We also lived near a Ranger Station and the workers would stop by our house for a quick game of fetch during their walk home.  Some would empty their lunch boxes in our yard... extra pizza, pbj's -- you name it.  Then by the end of the week, the poor dog didn't have enough gas in the tank to go hunting!  She was happy lab, though!   

What a dandy pup you got there.  Daisy doesn't know how good she's got it.  And I think you're doing one hell of a job training her up!    

[CoryTDF]

+1 on Wolters. Once you have that down you could branch out to Lardy or Graham programs and really step your game up. The Lardy TRT program is really good. It warms my hear to see people training their dogs the right way. Keep at it and if you really want to test your skill as a trainer and meets some like minded folks try looking into the ACK Hunt Test's as they are a blast and you will meet some great folks.

[Fl0und3rz]

Beautiful dog.  A black lab is in our future; our fuiirst.  I am following for tips on training and training resources.

Thanks.

[lamrith]

One other tidbit of advice, make sure your wife and son use the same one-word commands, tone of voice, and hand signals that you use.  And rules are rules, so make sure everyone in the family is on the same page.  Be sure they know that Daisy is a dog for the whole family, and fill  them in on what you've learned from Wolters - if you haven't already.
 

This bigtime.  I am battling with family members with this issue myself.  I have used "OK" as her break from a stay command and family keeps using any number of other commands. Its like they pick a different one for each day of the week. 

PETE - glad to here she is progressing so well!!

[2MANY]

That book by Wolters is the best.  I've trained four labs after reading it, and they all turned out great.  I can see it's working its magic on your pup. 

Our yellow "pup" is almost 3 now, and she still eats fast.  Be careful not to feed her right after or before workouts.  I give Tig 1 biscuit and fresh water after a workout, then feed her kibble no less than 1/2 hour afterward.  Otherwise she pukes.  In summer, she takes a quick swim in the creek after every workout to cool down.

One other tidbit of advice, make sure your wife and son use the same one-word commands, tone of voice, and hand signals that you use.  And rules are rules, so make sure everyone in the family is on the same page.  Be sure they know that Daisy is a dog for the whole family, and fill  them in on what you've learned from Wolters - if you haven't already.

One mistake I made... when I was gone working, my kids and their friends would be tossing sticks for my chocolate lab all day long.  The dog loved it, but she was shot by the end of each day.  The family would take her to the swimming hole and everyone there would fall in love and play stick in the water.  Poor dog didn't know when to quit.  We also lived near a Ranger Station and the workers would stop by our house for a quick game of fetch during their walk home.  Some would empty their lunch boxes in our yard... extra pizza, pbj's -- you name it.  Then by the end of the week, the poor dog didn't have enough gas in the tank to go hunting!  She was happy lab, though!   

What a dandy pup you got there.  Daisy doesn't know how good she's got it.  And I think you're doing one hell of a job training her up!   

This dude has walked the walk.
I've trained a few bird dogs too.
Your statements are 110% correct.

Also my 14 year old son is reading Wolters "Gun Dog" right now.

Pup comes February 27th.