# New Hunting Buddy



## tfeist43 (Dec 5, 2006)

I am getting a new hunting buddy on the 15 and has been awhile since i have had to train a dog. She will be a family dog along with a upland dog. I have some ideas but would also like some insight on how other ppl have trained there dogs. The dog is a female yellow lab if that help or makes a difference.

Thanks 
Tyler


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## alleyyooper (Jul 6, 2007)

My labby was a chocolate. We started her out right from the git go with the kennel floor covered with news paper. She then would only go in her pen when we shut her in when it was cold on a sheet of news paper. I kept tossing a training dummy about as big as she was into the creek. After that is was about impossiable to keep her out of the water. She was a retriveing fool for 16 of her 17 years with us. I used a lead on her at first to reinforce she was supposed to bring the training dimmy to me and get praise Also used a check cord (50') to boundry train her and to work close when we went partrige hunting.

 Al


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## youngbuck711 (Sep 21, 2012)

I don't know how qualified I am to give advice, and I'm sure some other people who have a lot of experience will chime in, but I'll tell you what I've done with my pup so far.

I was in the same boat as you. I hadn't had a dog for quite a while and this was my first hunting dog. The really important part right now is the family part. You will just need to focus on things that you would do with any other dog to make them a reliable companion: bonding, socialization and basic obedience. Those three things are the basic foundation of any quality dog, gundog or otherwise.

You need to have a bond with your dog. Puppies are fun because they always want to be with you and around you. You don't have to work too hard to make them listen; it's later on when they get to their independence stage that you will have to be ready to enforce commands.

Start by just being with your dog. Take them everywhere and let them meet everyone. This is part of socializing the dog to new environments and getting them used to different people. Take them to the park and let people pet her and pick her up; everyone loves puppies so this part is easy. Take her for walks in the neighborhood. take her for car rides.

Take her out to some of your favorite hunting spots and let her explore. when they're this young, they won't get too far away and will come back readily. later on you will need to keep a check cord or an E-collar on her, but right now, she won't get too far away. Take a pheasant wing with you and toss it in the grass for her and let her find it; this and introduction to the retrieve are about the only real "gundog" specific things that I would do for the first little while.

In regards to obedience, I started with this right away. Keep sessions very, very short, but frequent. Dogs learn through repetition and her attention span is very short right now. I would recommend either obtaining a video series that will walk you through these building block steps, or a book.

Usually, though, you're pretty safe by starting with "sit" and working from there. I actually taught my pup to sit and stay off the same command as I saw no real need to teach two different commands. It's amazing how effective a dog can be in the field with only learning a "sit/stay" and "come" commands. If you drill those two things into her, you can reliably control her anywhere and build hand signals off of these.

My pup just turned 6 months. Last week she flushed her first rooster and I was able to bag it. She has now flushed 8 roosters for me in the last week. I've got her working birds using sit/stay and come, basic retrieve work, and very basic hand signals so far. I'm hoping to strengthen her quartering pattern this winter.

I will be purchasing the Fowl Dawgs DVD series to help me take her through waterfowl training this summer. She also will shed hunt with me this Spring.


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2012)

Do yourself a huge favor and buy the DVD's Fowldawgs 1-3 by Rick Stawski. You will thank me and so will your dog. It is a complete training program that will give you the right idea and make it easier on you and the pup if you follow it.


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