Future duck hunter

If you want to do it right, read the books WATER DOG and GUN DOG by: Richard A Wolters

This guy knows his stuff...

He is trying to make the game"you chase me". Don't do it. Go away from him making noise and now the game is "go to you".

Oarsman has great advice if your realy wanting to put the time in.

Water dog and Gun dog are also on DVD , i had the water dog book then got the 2 dvds and that really helped. Patience is the key, about 15 min a day , stop when the dog shows he is not interested.
The obedience part is the most important, he must know u r always in charge. But not by hiting, sometimes depending on the dogs deminer yelling can ruin a dog.

Thanks for everyones input. Just one more problem. He bites and growls everytime I correct him when he bites. I try the newspaper . And it is not working. the biting is getting worse. I don't mean playing he really clamps down.How can I stop this?

I've never trained retrievers but I've done obedience training with many dogs the past 30 years or so. I'll not be specific to your type of training.

The one thing I've been amazed with just lately is my daughter and family love to watch that Dog Wisper show with Ceasar something. We have a dog that started giving us some problems just out of the blue about 6 months ago to the point I thought I might have to get rid of him.

I studied a lot of info from the internet including Ceasar's web page and thought I figured out Squirt's problem and started working on him every day with my own obedience back round and added some of the techniques Ceasar suggests.

Using the dominance posturing as a discipline and correction tool when that was needed was absolutely mind boggling how much better it worked and more quickly he learned than with any thing I'd ever seen before or learned at any professional training opportunities. I HIGHLY recomend it's use where ever it fits in to your training regime other wise.

If your command get's ignored or a behaviour is unacceptable and the dog has been order to stop, address it in a very stern but factual, business type attitude. Not a "beating" type of anger, but the simple matter of fact attitude you would use when taking a hammer away from a child.

Force the dog to the ground and to roll over or lay on it's side in a submisive manner. Now spread your fingers and push them threw the fur to solid contact with skin of the dog just to what ever degree of firmness is required to physically force the dog to lay in that position and unable to squirm away. It took only less than a minute to happen with my trouble dog and they just will like melt. It's almost like a magic spell or putting a chicken's head under it's wing.

It is mimicing what a mama dog does to correct puppies when she get's fed up and will force them to the ground with her mought and jaws on their neck and hold them until they submit and acknowledge her as the top dog, alpha dog, the boss or what ever you want to call it. Your fingers mimic the feeling of her teeth and engraves that sense that you are the boss. The dog is the submissive and the master determines the project and behaviour.

Every task we worked on after that was a hundred times easier, quicker to learn and a lot less stress for all involved.

Additional magic tips, never let the dog in front on a lead, never first through the door or first up or down steps, or in to a room or area. Think about it, the pack leader runs in front, decides where we will go, when we eat and who eats what, get's the best sleeping quarters. Always make sure in each of these situations the dog knows he is the bottom of the totem pole in dominance and ever thing else get's a lot easier. Make them work even for their dayly food. Even if all it is to make them sit before they get fed. They are acknowledging that YOU give the orders and THEY follow them.

You won't believe the difference it makes with every thing else you require of a dog.

Your dog is growling and biting because he is not sure of his status position in the pack and thinks he may move up a notch or two. He is testing to see if he can gain more control in the pack. They will all do that from puppy to death if they see conflicting signalls as to status with in the pack of your family.

He must learn that HE OWNS NOTHING. Every thing in his world belongs to the humans. He plays with them only at their descrestion. As has been stated, do not play tug of war. In the dog world it is a contest of wills establiching dominance. Do not let him get to "own" any thing. Give him toys only on a basis where you have total ability to get them back any time you want and practice giving and taking to make sure he understands the heirarchy. Correct any resistance, nipping, refusing to drop anything retrived to hand or in front of you on command with the technique I've out lined. Do not allow him to dictate even so much as petting by rubbing or leaning on you. Ignore it and then pet them if you want to a few minutes later to be sure he understands that he is not bossing you in to giving what HE wants.

It will help you avoid all the jumping up and other problems you will like a lot less when he is 100 pounds of muddy feet and wet nasty dog hair.

I think you'll be much more satisfied with this as correction for speed of improvement and dog and master relation and learning relationship than using the newspaper. I've used most everything else commonly used and it amazed me how much quicker this dog started picking up with this new means of correcting his mistakes. This is no pup I'm working on either. He is old, cranky, has 7-8 years of habits that are being broken and corrected in as little as a few days.

Man Pigeonflier... That is WRONG on so many levels...

He is soo very cute!! I wish I could have 2 more,, but its just not possible right now.. Good luck on yer new hunting companion.. Once you've hunted with a good working dog,, you'll wonder how you ever got along without one!!!

Well stated my friend. I'd been pondering how or if to respond to these current posts, you, in a professional manner, took the words right out of my mouth.

Pigeon, its a good thing you and I hunt very different areas, because I can guantee you if I saw such a 'whipping' taking place I'd have another four legged mouth to feed and you would have one less......

Girlshunt2, my appologies for your thread getting off track. Like I mentioned before, please feel free to PM me or call if you need any advice or 'hints' I'm always more than happy to help. Gotta love teaching those little ones!!!!

Ive trained dogs for over 30 years and not the smart kind. The dogs I train are about 120 on the dog smart list.....they are beagles.

One thing Ive learned a long time ago was beating or whipping a dog does nothing but make them scared of you. Ive seen guys beat dogs with leads and the dogs have no idea what the beatings for.

Electronic training collars used right work real good but in the wrong hands are worse than a beating.

What works for me is the tone of my voice. Dogs understand voice tone and respond to it. Don't believe me just growl at your dog and see how they react then use a normal voice and praise them.

Dogs learn by repetition. A half hour a day of training when the dog is young and you end up with a well handling dog. After all the only thing you do as a trainer is learn the dog to handle because the rest is instinct which is bred into the dog threw years of line breeding.

I have trained 3 Brits over the years and all of them where good hunting and retrieving dogs. The female I own now will water retrieve which is pretty good for a pointer. h.h.