K so this is my first lab, and first purebred dog. I took him out to the launch today to throw a bumper, and he was to me amazing. Chased after every bumper. Drove into the water hard from the ramp, and even dove in off the warf after the bumper. I was using a cap gun (I was inside city limits) I would cap quack then throw, and he didn't miss once. Shoul I be thrilled, or is this normal.

The dog is 4 months old, and the sire is Coache's way to go devil. From the pedigree, he looks impressive, but what do I know, it's my first.

He knows sit. We are working on stay, but I am a proud pappa right now. That is till y'all tell me I got a short bus lab, and he'll suck at hunting.

Sounds good to me. I know a lot of guys told me sit means stay, a dog cant move if its sitting right? Enforce the sit over atay. Thats how my black learned it. After reading on here I came to find its a lot easier to teach them one word for 2 commands

X10, one command is the ticket.

They pick it up quick.

yes.. first just make him sit, when he gets up. pick him up by both sides of the neck/jowels and carry him back to the exact spot he was in. After that you can begin the circle drill to really lock all that in.

Shot over him today, and the dog was rock solid. Started with black cats next to us. Light quack bang fetch. Didn't miss a step. Moved into the cane field. Quack shoot fetch retrieved each time. I'm getting excited. We are working on fundamentals as well, but no session lasting more than about 45 mins. We leave the sesion each time with him still wanting to train, but I don't want to over work him.

Ordered water dog book Tom Dokken's retriever training book, and his puppy training DVD. Any other suggestions? I did a search and I saw those two names pop up a lot on here.

We train right now for about 20 min. Minimum a day, and retrieve in the water every day on the weekend for about 45 min. He looks like he wants to go for more, but I don't want to injure him.

Would y'all take him on a hunt to teach blind manners and play fetch after the hunt, or just wait till he is fully started?

Back when I started training my first lab I followed a lot of the drills that mike Stewart used in his training process. He owns wildrose kennels here in north ms. His video Is called "the wildrose way, gentleman's gun dog" or somethin like that. It won't help with collar conditioning or force fetching, as mike does not employ either. But he does have some extremely useful obedience,steadiness, as well as novice and seasoned retrieving drills. It's worth a look

Try bill Hillman training a puppy this is by far the best video I have watched he takes a puppy and trains for 28 days live teaches u what to do while training a young dog and unlike other DVDs he uses an untrained dog so u get a hands on experience it costs bout 130$ but u will use this method all through the dogs life very much worth ever penny I paid for it I think is better than the mike Lardy set even if ur already a experienced trainer it will help ur training alot

Just remember he is only 4 months old.... What they call teen age years for dogs is right around the corner ... If he starts to disobey you at any time during your training session just quit for the day and don't push it cause if you get mad this will just frustrate you even more... Start over the nxt day and maybe only train for 15 mi to a half hour.. Game Dog video is good the techniques are from Richard Wolters and I base my training from it... Keep up the work just takes TIME!!