Getting a new dog

[okstate]

We are getting a ten week old Golden retriever puppy. My question to the board is.

how much training would you do with him before you sent him to someone that trains dogs for hunting? or would you try to do all of the training yourself?

just curious I have never trained a dog for hunting but sounds fun and challenging. but am leaning to sending him off to be trained.

any thoughts?

[tybo]

I recently trained my first pointing dog so I can't speak in terms of a retriever but I would assume some aspects are similar. I would expect that you need to decide to what level you want the dog trained, do you want a finished dog? That would be a dog that sits on a flush, does retrieves on hand signals, etc. Will it be for upland and waterfowl or just one or the other?

If the dog is to be finished then that may be a little much for a first time trainer. Again I've never trained a retriever. One thing you can look into is that some trainers will work with people during the week or on the weekends either in seminars or private/group sessions to assist people with certain aspects of training.

I was a little intimidated at first but I really wanted to do as much of it as I could to see how difficult it was. I found some trainers to work with a little but did the majority of it on my own. I found it to be an incredible experience. I really loved doing it. I think there's a certain amount of pride, reward, etc when you see them performing and knowing you were there to see them figure things out.

Training is time consuming and there is an everyday comittment so you owe it to the dog to do what's best for him to get the results you want. Most weaknesses in a dog are due to the trainer not the dog. That's true for any dog not just a hunting dog. As long as the pup has good instincts you/he should be fine.

If you expect a finished dog I would say atleast have a trainer to work with for the tough stuff. If you want a basic hunting dog then I would say if you have the time to commit to it then you could probably do it yourself.

Goos Luck

[tealitup]

You should be able to train your puppy to sit (stay) come, down and fetch. I think the more work you put into training before you send your pup to a trainer the more results you will get.

[PikeBayCommanche]

Just like all the guys said. I all depends to what level you are looking for your dog to be at.

There are many levels of hunting dogs.

Good Luck with the new pup.

[rattlereel]

I believe that you sould find out who the trainer is that you will be sending him to and find out the words that they would like to use. It makes it easier for the trainer if the dog donen't have to learn a new word for the same command.