a friend of mine is leaving for hawaii, and he has a 9month old american white lab that he has given me. The dog is house broke,which is great, he retrieves very well, and drops on command. I have an english choc lab, but he is just a lap dog, no will to hunt. I am wanting to know, do you think its too late to train this dog for upland hunting? When i try to teach him to heel, he just jumps by my side!! Any pointers on what i can do to help this dog would be appreciated.
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"ALWAYS LEAVE THE WOODS WITH SOMETHING"
-Michael T. Webster
"Sometimes the lord calms the storm, other times he calms his child, and lets the storm rage."
No its not too late. 9 months is still a pup. First you need to work on your obedience, like heel, as you said if that hasn't been accomplished yet. For heel, the best way is to buy a pinch collar (NOT A CHOKE COLLAR) and use a short lead. Make that dog follow at heel and keep repeating "heel". If he makes a mistake, pop the lead and that dog will soon realize he better pay attention or he gets hurt. Worked wonders on my chessie. After obedience you should do a FF program if your going to have the dog do alot of retrieving.
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Without passion.....Why bother?
It's NOT too late. Just pretend that your dog is a puppy and start out your training from that perspective. Your dog will pick up some things faster than a puppy, and some things will be slower. Just get on a good sequential training program and 'start out fresh'.
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Ignorance can sometimes be cured, but stupid is forever.
Doc E &
HR UH MHR WR SR Black Forest Casey &
HRCH HR UH Sauk River Friar Tucker (titled at 12.5 months)
Now my question is this, should i start soley on obidence, like heel, sit, stay commands?? Then start gettting him birdy? Or compile it into one? This dog is smart, he retrieves very well. This is only my 3 day of having him and we are already doing multiple retrieves. What should i start with? Does anyone have a plan that they used and it worked?
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"ALWAYS LEAVE THE WOODS WITH SOMETHING"
-Michael T. Webster
"Sometimes the lord calms the storm, other times he calms his child, and lets the storm rage."
I think you're already moving too fast in doing multiple retrieves, even if the dog is capable. Go back and get the obedience down, then move on one step at a time. Think of training a dog as building a house. Obedience being the foundation, FF the walls, and birds and handling the roof. If you don't work the basics first, your training will fall apart.
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Without passion.....Why bother?
When you know that your dog knows the obedience commands, you can introduce birds. Heres a good scenerio. Have the dog sit and watch a live bird, but make him be steady. Then call the dog to you, make sure he obeys. For the first time I highly recommend using a long lead and possibly a pinch collar. Birds can be used to keep the dog excited. But be sure you use them cautiously. Letting a dog eat or damage a bird can defeat your purpose. Good luck. I also highly recommend buying a training book. The NAVHDA book is very good for an upland dog. It will answer almost all of your questions.
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Without passion.....Why bother?
American or English labs?
