Its been forever since Ive had time to mess with a puppy, but I finally got another and need some pointers on starting her. Shes a female black lab, at 8 weeks old now. So far, Ive got her sitting. I havent really worked with her much as of this moment. More of just bonded with her.. She goes everywhere with me. Ive got a small chew toy ive been throwing for fun on occasion which she will retreive, but normally just takes off past me with it and goes and chews on it.

My question is what should I start working with her on first, and when? Im keeping things simple with this dog, and wont be whistle training her. Just need a obedient dog that will listen, and go get my ducks for me.

Throw the toy to the end of a hallway so when she goes and gets her toy and comes back she can't run past u. Saw it in YouTube.


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Don't throw chew toys! Don't want the dog to get used to chewing on what she retrieves. Work on patience. Tie her up in sight of you and do something, like wash your truck or work on something. Let her know she isn't the center of attention all the time. Teach her to be steady by making her sit before you give her food, then set the bowl on the floor in front of her, And hold her back. Don't let her eat till she is sitting and calm. Extend the distance and wait period every other day or so. Also, don't EVER work her off the leash at a young age. It helps to keep control of her. If you can quickly correct her, she is less likely to fail and that's the point, to prevent her from failing. And don't forget how short their attention span in

Haters gonna hate but water dogs worked well for me for the early stuff

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The dog is 8 weeks old...don't work on shit training related. Have fun with the pup. Grow the bond. Working on sit/ here is ok but don't rush training. I have seen waaay too many people rush training. There will come a time when it's time to get down to work. Enjoy the first 6 months and all the chewing on shit that comes with it Word of advice: I can't stress enough how important it will be to have your pup FF'd when the time comes.

get the book water dog it tells you everything you need to know

Dot wait till 6 months. You can do plenty of binding and still train. A training session is only a few minutes at a time. If you wait that late, there is more chance for the dog to develope bad habits and that makes training tougher

you can start treat training on obedience immediately, it's easier to get it ingrained in them at a young age than it is to fight them over it later. retrieving is a game right now for the pup, so make it fun and keep training sessions to 5 mins or so a couple times a day. if you're just looking to train a sufficient meat dog, pick up the dvd duck dog basics by chris akin, it will cover the level of training you want to achieve and more. it's low pressure and easy to follow, i have a couple of buddies who used it with success. at a minimum you should be able to train the pup to be well mannered and steady in the blind that's able to pick up a lot of birds. good luck!

Waterdog is pretty antiquated. I really like the Hillman puppy program. He has trained more derby champions than anyone. His program start with retrieving AND steadying at a young age. Another good puppy DVD is Sound Beginnings by Jackie Mertens. Both will give your puppy a good start. Puppy tarining should be all positive and fun for the pup. It's really more behavior shaping than training early on. However, fewer and fewer people are waiting till 6 months to start a training program.

For a training progarm, there are three that use up to date training methods:
1. Smartwork for Retirevers by Evan Graham
2. Total Retriever Training by Mike Lardy
3. Fowl Dogs by Rick Stowski

Buck

Read and watch a bunch of different books/videos. Some I use:

Richard Wolters (Water Dog, Game Dog)
Mike Mahliot http://www.gundogsupply.com/vid-sw044.html
Fowl Dogs videos
Kennth Robuck (retirever and spaniel book)
George Hicox

I'm training a 12 week old black male right now. For your problem, the hallways is the best thing--throw a dummy down the hall and she has to bring it back to you (no where else to go!). get her SUPER excited at this stage (tons of praise, tease her with the dummy, keep sessions short so she ends on a high note--like 5 throws even). Make sure you don't have something that will snag on her teeth that could injure or frighten her. Only bring out the retireving toy when it's time to retreive--don't let her chew on it. That way she knows it's a special exciting thing she does with you.

Then start leash work--sit, stay, come. Again keep it very simple and positve for then next several weeks.

Jackie Merten's Sound Beginings is a great puppy DVD. Simple and easy to follow. For older dogs the others mentioned are good. Look on amazon. I got mine used for cheap.

Honestly I wanna keep it simple.. I may end up whistle training her now that I think more about it... Depends on how she turns out.

For young pups, I do the hallway retrieves, and OB in a separate area. I use treats for young pups but phase them out ASAP.
Bill's material is good as is Jackie's.

I prefer Mike's program as a dog develops.

One of the things I like to do as a pup ages is to find a local ball field and use the dugout for retrieving practice. They're still confined but there are lots of distractions.

Don't waite till 6 months. First weeks are critical. Bond , but also start teaching obedience.

Cort, you should leave her at the house to be a couch dog if you don't whistle train her. That's the most silly thing you have said in quite a while. Do this for your dogs sake. Her safety may depend on it one day.

Ive never whistle trained a dog before, and figured it would be more complicated than what its worth.. My dads dogs are whistle trained tho, and I will admit its definitely nice. This one will be whistle trained now that ive thought it over and read a few articles.

Not hard at all. Hard part is making yourself do it. The pup will pick it up easily.

I had waterdog when I trained my first pup... No idea what happened to it.. I learned alot from it.. yall have any better suggestions?

y'all still carrying on about this? For Christs sake, let the pup be a pup. Basic obedience is ok. But, and I'll say it again one last time, wait til the pooch has gotten it's teeth in before you start tossing bumpers and leaning on it. Water Dog makes people think that every dog should be started out really young and will be a retrieving fool by six months. I feel sorry for the dogs that get taken out by their owners to a duck blind at a young age as well. Its ridiculous. Let the dog be a dog before too much is expected of it. Plenty of time once the training begins to start putting pressure on it. Didn't start my pooch on formal ob and get FF til he was 6 months. He got thru the program just fine and is a steady, retrieving fool. Also, like the others have said, why the phuck not whistle train a dog? Are you stupid? Its not just for handling to blinds and such. It may just save your pooch one day. Bottom line is that it will all come together if the dog has any natural ability and smarts. Rushing things doesn't do anything but put pressure too early on a young pup and could F something up. Too many people out there with dogs just wanna say, " my dog was retrieving at 4 months" only to be followed by " oh yeah? well my dog got it's JH at 3 months and its senoir before it was a year" And my dog has this many ribbons...Who gives a shit!! Take your time, enjoy the puppy in your dog, grow that all important bond and wait a while before EXPECTING your dog to do anything you tell it to. It will come.. Too many impatient people these days

I plan on taking it slow with this one and not really pushing much on her. Im working with her very slowly, and making training sessions short, and only a couple times a day.

Whistles from the start make it easier on both of you! I'll call you tomorrow.

Don't worry about the fetching this early. As long as the dog has the prey drive it wants to chase what is thrown. Gently work on obidience. Keep it short and fun. The hard part is getting the dog to come back and give you what it chased. How many dogs you hunt with that fetch but won't sit still in the blind. Work on sitting still and quiet. Don't teach it any bad habits in the first 6 months, they will never go away. Whistles are easy. No difference between telling a dog "sit" and blowwing a whistle once same thing with "here" and mutiple whistles. Dog doesn't speak English or whistle. Pick a training book, almost any book. The big thing is find one you understand and can follow then follow it.

I tend NOT to wait, however, that doesn't mean I make puppy's life a living hell.

The thing about puppies is you have to engineer their environment and don't overdo the "training". For my young puppies, I spend a lot of time socializing and bringing them into new environments, but I also introduce light OB (particularly sit and here with treats) and puppy retrieves in a controlled setting (like the hallway).

It's easy to get excited and want to overdo it with a puppy, so you have to remember they have short attention spans. A "training" session might be only 2 minutes long and consist of two or three sits, etc. That's it.

You've gotten some good advice on training materials. As I said earlier, I prefer Mike Lardy's program. If money is tight, you can buy the first series of his training articles for $25 off of totalretriever.com which will get you through to a basic handling dog. His DVD's are kinda expensive at $125 (I think), but there used to be a website where you could rent them pretty cheap. I've never used it, but I think it was bowwow flix or something like that. Someone else might chime in who has used that service.

Basics are basics, regardless if you want a good hunting dog or a FC, so try to pick a good program and follow it.

CS the DVD rental site is bowwowflix.com.

I would really encourage the OP to look at the Hillman DVDs. Very low pressure and starts molding the puppy at a very young age with great results.

I also really like the Lardy stuff, but if someone doesn't have any retriever training background I think Graham's program is easier to follow.

Buck

I have a few videos I started my dog on Tom dokken videos and of course waterdog ( good book ). I started early with my dog . Doesn't mean you have to, but does make it a lil easier.
Good luck training your pup !!

Appreciate it. Shes doing GREAT! Sits and stays, retreives.. Shes now sitting and staying until I say her name... Shes amazing me at how fast she learns things.. Ive kept things extremely light and havent pushed anything on her, she just picks up on what I want her to do, and does her best to do it. Awesome little dog, with tons of drive. Im thinking shes going to be an extremely good duck dog.

Forgot to bring up place training. Really helpful to have a dog that will stay on a bed or mat. Hint: Don't call the dog off of its place, go get it. Mine lay on their beds in the house for hours. A raised bed helps a lot in the beginning. I carry a rolled up mat everywhere. Nice to go to someone elses house or camp and just throw a mat in the corner for the dogs.

Save some money up Brassos and send that rat to the trainer my cousins dog is at.


TEXAS

Endless you have very limited time off I would try training him yourself