Okay here is the situation – I have a friend who has an incredible lab – about two years ago he thought he was going to lose the dog to cancer and so quickly bred him to a Grand Champion female. As part of the deal he got pick of litter and chose an outstanding looking male.

He sent him to a trainer for 15 months!!! When the dog returned he was not satisfied with its progress and has banished it to the kennel. He has offered me the dog for free!!

I worked with the dog today and it did great on heel (sticks right on my hip and sits when I stop), retrieve to hand, force fetch, and water retrieves – it even was able to do a couple of doubles on land! BUT it did not have any concept of whistle commands and it was not steady after the dummy was thrown (he wanted to bolt immediately and I had to hold him back).

So here is what I need to know – is it too late to teach the dog these important lessons? You can tell that the trainer was very hard on the dog and it can become shy pretty easily. I am just worried that it is too late to teach what should have been a part of his foundation.

I would love to hear your thoughts about whether I should invest the time in the dog and what you would do to get him going correctly. Sorry about the LONG post!! By the way I will be using the dog primarily for waterfowl hunting.