Dog's First retrieve

[New England Native]

This is my 9month old lab Fenway. I took him out on a jump shoot this afternoon and he finally had a chance for his first retrieve! 

[Dadbear]

Great job , Fenway! 

[Pathfinder101]

Super cool!  I've got one about the same age that I need to get out there...

[SnowDog]

Nice work & a great looking dog!

I've got a 6 month old yellow lab "in training" this season. Requires lots of patients, but you gota love watching them figure things out. Yesterday, my dog actually swam around the decoys for the first time on a retrieve. Typically, I have to reset half the spread after he drags them to shore.

Cheers!
SnowDog

[head hunter]

good looking dog man

[New England Native]

thanks all he is far from a well trained dog. I took him out a couple of times before hunting out of a blind, it was really slow and he just couldn't sit still so we had to pack and leave early. So I tried a jump shoot to at least work on the retrieving. How much should I expect from him at this age? I was thinking of a training collar to help me. The salesman at cabelas didn't want to sell me one because he thought I wasn't doing a good enough job training.

[mkcj]

You can't expect a whole lot from a 9 month old in people years that's like 6 and how long does a first grader stay focused? Fenway ya did great!

[Kuduman]

New England Native:
 You'll hear allot of debate about when to start hunting a young dog. Basically I spend the first several months on the basics. At 10 months they should have come sit stay mastered. Be steady to shot and break on command. If they cant do that I wont take them for long day hunts because it will only frustrate me and them. If there not rock solid by 2 years then you might have a problem.
 I had a choclate that I had to force retrieve once then he had it down. It helps if you have good luck and kill plenty of birds. I was fortunate that we hunted with 5-7 hunters twice a week and routinely limited. that meant that my dog retrieved 10-14 limits each week for 10 weeks Do the math that's allot of experience in a very short time. After that first year I never had a problem.
Good luck
Jeff