Steadiness Training – The Beginning
A steady retriever is one that waits quietly and calmly while the birds are shot and fall. The wait might be 3 minutes or 30 minutes. The behavior should be the same regardless of the Read More …
Training
Starting a Retriever Gundog Puppy on Blind Retrieves
The conservation aspect of a retriever’s job is exercised by his ability to collect the crippled birds quickly before they have a chance to run off or swim off to die uncollected. Often pup will Read More …
Place Board Training – A Valuable Addition to a Gun Dog Training Program
A place board for a retriever is typically a square or rectangle big enough to accommodate the dog sitting comfortably. A square of 18 inches per side is about right. It can be plywood, plastic, Read More …
Positive Training Produces Great Gundogs – Three Times Easier to Learn; Three Times Faster to Execute
After 9/11, I was tasked to rebuild a FEMA disaster search dog program in need of reworking. To begin I recruited 15 dog handlers of whom more than 50% were police and firefighters so that Read More …
Communication In Gundog Training – “You Said What?”
Communication is nearly never mentioned in discussions of dog training. Communication, however, is the most important piece of the puzzle. How do you tell the dog what you want him to do? A quite typical Read More …
The Gundog’s Fuzzy World of Cues and Commands – Helpful Gun Dog Training Information
In the retriever training world a cue is a trigger to elicit a trained behavior from a dog. Many refer to a cue as a command. We make a very large assumption when we assume Read More …