New Pup?

So, you’ve gotten a new Retriever puppy and you want to train it to be your hunting partner? Don’t wait too long! At 8 weeks that pup is ready for Preschool and time really flies until all of a sudden it’s ready for graduate school. Waiting until a puppy is 6 months or a year old is like taking an eighteen year old child who’s done exactly what they’ve wanted all those years and expecting them to now sit in a desk and learn to read and write! As many have witnessed, puppies learn whether you teach them or not. It is up to you to give them the Right Start so they grow up into the kind of well behaved gundog, as well as the family member you dreamt of.

Puppy needs to learn manners First. These include learning commands such as sit, come, kennel, off, quiet, no bite and learning to walk nicely on a leash. This can be called Preschool.

Puppy needs to be introduced to many things in an informal way to prepare them for their first hunting season. Things such as dummies, birds, whistle, gunners (people who throw birds/dummies for you), cover (6" – 12" grasses), water (when the temp is warm enough), blinds ( for gunners to hide behind), guns (at a distance), and duck calls. This is Elementary training – what every gundog needs to know before that first season.

Then they need to go on to High School and more formal training where they learn fetch, hold, heel, and give. They are learning to do increasingly more difficult marks, learning to be steady, waiting to be sent for the bird and honoring another dog retrieving.

They can then go on to Graduate School if you want them to learn to handle so that they can perform blind retrieves on land and water, completing multiple marks on land and water with diversions thrown in.

All of this can be obtained with patience and perseverance. A little know how helps but one-on-one guidance from a professional is your best bet if you haven’t trained a retriever before. Some trainers offer individual classes, group classes or you can leave the dog with the trainer on a month by month basis for them to train it for you. After they have trained the dog, they will go over everything with you and teach you how to handle the dog yourself.

Don’t make the mistake and wait until your new pup has learned bad habits – start training them from the day you get them. Two years of consistent training of your pup will give you a great hunting partner for years to come.