[Walden7272]

Hello, my name is David and I am new to RTF and new to dawg training for that matter. I live in East Texas and will be expecting my first CLM (Bear-8 weeks-CPR Zig Zags Wild Bunch-Sundance Kid X Zig Zags Autumn's on Fire of Pine Point) in a little over 3 weeks. Bear is the name my daughters liked best out of the options i gave them so it has stuck around the house, haha. I am very excited and cant wait for his arrival as I have been watching him grow with great anticipation. I am not new to hunting dawgs but this will be my first lab/hunting partner that i have personally had and the first dog I have ever trained. I want to train the pup myself because I want to bond closely with the pup as well as get out and have fun with my new buddy. I am only wanting a solid hunting partner for ducks and dove mainly but the FT and HT thing is starting to get into my blood a little from being on this site. Being new to training I have been doing a lot of research in both reading and speaking to trainers as well as reading the posts here in preparation for him to join our family. I have also taken the advice I read on this site and found a club I am going to join when Bear arrives. After reading many posts on this site I decided to go with Jackie Mertens Sound beginnings course to start off with and then will transition into Mike Lardy's formal training later on. I don't want to get into everyone's personal preferences about which training techniques are better or what video's to use as I know the discussions on that subject can be rather heated on this forum.

The purpose for this post is I just received Jackie's DVD today and have been watching it and I have a question and want your expert guidance on. When starting your puppy with this video, do you also incorporate OB training such as sit, stay, heel and come or is that what people refer too as "formal training"? The reason I ask is because 1. I am a newbie to training and 2. I want to be sure that I am doing things correctly and not giving the pup too much at once or not enough. In watching the video Jackie uses several puppies ranging in ages so I am assuming they have some of that training already. But then again, everyone knows what assuming does, it makes a a** out of you me. (just me in this case).

I appreciate your responses and look forward to reading them. If there are other threads that deal with this question I apologize I just haven't found it, I am still new and learning how to navigate the site. When I get a picture of my new pup I will be sure to introduce him as I will be a very proud daddy. Sorry for the long post, but I value any feedback from the group and look forward to learning much more in the future. Thank you.

 

[Kenneth Niles Bora]

What a great first post David!
Welcome to RTF
I had a dog named Bear way back, good dog name.
I can not help you on the JM vid but in is never too
early to teach stuff to pups. Keep it fun, let um be pups
but do teach um all and everything you can think of


.

 

[larsenslabs]

Something to cause even more confusion for you - your sire is a CPR - certified pointing retriever. Do you intend to train this dog to be pointing lab if it indeed has the genes to point? If so, you might want to do some reading up on Knutson's Training the Pointing Lab. I have a down payment on a pup from A GMPR and a CPR and this will be my first experience with training a pointing lab. From my understanding so far, there are some things to look out for and to avoid when training a pointing lab although most of the original obedience training is the same. As I said, I am in uncharted waters for me here also although I have trained numerous flushing labs before. You might want to contact a pointing lab kennel for some advice if you indeed intend to have your pup be a pointer.

LL

 

[gdgnyc]

Welcome to RTF.

I can't comment on the DVD that you have as I am not familiar with it. That being said, I would recommend looking at the DVD several times. The answer to your question may be in there but you may have missed it---just like when you see a movie 2 or 3 times you see things that you didn't see at first. Maybe you could even contact Jackie Mertens.

In my obedience class the teacher taught puppy obedience in a soft, positive way without harsh corrections. Stricter obedience (formal obedience?) with physical corrections came later on. I prefer this myself and have always taught this way. Perhaps this applies to what is shown on the DVD.

 

[Walden7272]

Thank you for your comments. I was aware he is a CPR, I was hoping to also to use him on pheasant so I wanted the pointing instinct in him. I was told if it wasn't in their genes to point then it was almost impossible to train. Again, this is what I was told so not sure if it was true so I wanted to hedge my bets. I understand the big debate on pointing labs, but I figure with all these dogs can do then this is not out of the realm of possibilities for them. But I am really excited to learn all I can, so I figured what best way to learn then jump in with both feet?

 

[Walden7272]

Gdgnyc- I also am planning on training with lots positive reinforcement as I will be learning along with the dog as well. I have just scratched the surface with regards to force fetching but haven't really dove into it yet. I am taking baby steps and I don't want to overwhelm myself and want to focus on the first part of the process. I have been reading from this site since January and just joined in march. I check in a couple times a day and read up on everything. My wife gets tired of me taking her IPad and reading hours on end. If y'all can't tell, I am very excited about my new pup, haha.

 

[Wayne Nutt]

I have Jackie's dvd but haven't watched it in a while. As I recall she starts out with puppy play training with treats and only positive reinforcement. This is not what you referred to as "formal" ob. This is what Mike Lardy calls "Socialization and Introduction to Field".

Then comes formal ob once he is big enough to use a choke chain, heeling stick and take some negative reinforcement (slap on the butt with a heeling stick, etc.)

Hope this helps.

 

[sunnydee]

I was in your shoes about 4 years ago. My very first lab, joined a club, bought DVD's and books, dove head first into the game. Besides my kids and grandkids it has given me more joy and pleasure of anything I have ever done. That being said, I started out with Jackie Mertens Sound Beginnings using small pieces of beef hotdogs as treats to teach her to sit, hear, etc., but waited until my dog was about 6 months before starting formal training. As the DVD shows you, you can teach your pup a ton of things with just treats and prase. Best of luck to you and enjoy the ride.

 

[Vammy]

Welcome to RTF David! You have come to the right forum for answers to literally tons of dawg questions, training and otherwise.

I'm following the same programs as you (Mertens and Lardy), but I added Bill Hillmann's "trainging a retriever puppy" to the pile. I believe Mertens and Hillmanns videos compliment each other in a number of ways, with one showing something the other may gloss over a bit. As well, Lardy's Volume 1 book has some good reading in it, for $24 I think you'll find the things he says fit right in with both videos from Mertens and Hillmann.

As others have indicated, start them young, and teach them everything in an informal, positive fashion. After watching the videos, readings tons of posts on RTF, and a lttle of my own past experience, I'm using the following list on my new guy:

1, Learn your name
2. Potty train
3. Crate train
4. And borrowing from Hillmann, "chase something"

In less than a week, my new pup has all of that rolling strong. I've added sit, here, quiet, the leash, and just yesterday, the word "no". All positive reinforcement, treats for the "executable commands" like sit and here, light muzzle clamp for "quiet". And squirt bottle reinforcement for long-range

Have fun, and ask questions; there are a ton of folks on this site who know what they're talking about, so people like you and I can accelerate our learning curves!