Gots me a hunting dog

H

Hedley

New member
We've been on the waiting list for this pup since April, and we finally got to pick him up this weekend. He's a registered lab with a better warranty than most new cars. He fits right in with our recent lab-mix rescue, and at 7 weeks, is already retrieving bumpers.
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I was wondering if anyone had any advice on raising a part-time hunting dog. Any links?
 
Get that dog in the bed of your truck ASAP. You want that dog to live there. Also, get a training collar on him so that you can get him into the field and zap his little butt when he chases rabbits. Other than that, a good Labs' instinct will take over and there's not a whole lot you'll need to teach it. Get a training dummy that will keep him from munchin birds, and he'll be a great dog. Good choice
 
what a beauty, just cause im curios what he cost you? 1k-2k? Reminds me when my weimaraner was just a pup

here he is as a pup

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here he is this summer at the lake
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Man, 1K bucks huh? That seems pretty steep to me, but I guess it depends on where you live. My yellow lady is a champion bred bird/show dog with champion lines on both sides back to England & Scotland and I only sell her pups for 500 bucks. Got a litter comin up, any1 interested?:D
 
Hedley, schweet! Nice pup.

JB, wow, beautiful Weim - a Weim will be my next dog - well either a Weim or a Visla - I'm leaning toward the Weim.
 
Yeah, I know he was expensive(everyone has said I'm nuts), but this is my first purchased dog. All of my other dogs are rescues, so I don't feel so bad.

And I hope he likes water. He's getting his sea legs this weekend on a fishing trip to Mexico.

Here's his sire and dam:
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Socialization

Make sure to expose your dog to other dogs. Unsocialized dogs in the field are no fun at all. Dog fights and shotguns are not a good mix.
 
Nice lookin' pup...

1.) Don't ruin him by shooting guns around him too soon. You can make a dog gun-shy very easy at that age. Gradual exposure is best.

2.) Get a book, I'd recommend "Smartwork for Retrievers, Volume one by Evan Graham...good information, step by step from puppy to transition. You can buy it here...

http://www.rushcreekpress.com/page2booksdvds.html

3.) Join a local retriever club. Some folks can do it alone...I couldn't, so I joined Waterloo Amateur Retriever Club in Round Rock, TX.

4.) some links I use...

http://www.retrievertraining.net/forums
http://refugeforums.com (go to the gundog forum)

5.) have fun, they are here for only a short time.

6.) check out my girl, then and now...

Lee
 

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I was wondering if anyone had any advice on raising a part-time hunting dog. Any links?
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I don't have any links. My experience came from a trainer here that is out of this world. My thoughts are these...
1. NUMBER ONE---Absolute...well, you get the picture...Crate train your dog. Not only will it help your dog and your carpet, it will give him his own quiet place when he wants to be alone (abiet not often).
2. Along with the retreiving drills, I'd highly recommend obedience training in the mix.
3. Keep your training times to 10-15 min. a day, sometimes twice a day if he's really catching on and has the energy. Don't push it. No matter what, if he just doesn't have a clue to the command, move on to something else or end the session. Believe me, it will come. And it will be like a light bulb went on in their head when it does.
4. Even after complete training, brush up from time to time in short sessions. Even if he's an adult, 5-10 minutes weekly or every other is plenty.
5. Like Roy said, socialize your dog with others.
6. Huntemup beat me to the punch. Great advice...

Of all the training the dog you give, one of the most important items I can come up with is you must stick with the discipline you give your dog. Labs, especially English, which I have, are very eager to learn, listen, and do what you want them to do. However, you have to establish who's boss up front and quick, concise corrections are needed up front. After that, it's mostly easy pickins...

Yeah, I know he was expensive(everyone has said I'm nuts), but this is my first purchased dog.
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In my opinion, I've experienced mutts to be just as costly, if not more, in the long run. I paid $800 for Maggie and it's the best $800 I've ever invested in a dog. She's in the DickenDall's line. With that, I think you may have paid a little more, but the price I paid for her was 3 years ago.
 
Be careful with the water introduction

Even waterdogs can be taught to dislike water, care should be taken when introducing your pup to it. Make sure the water is not cold. Whatever you do, don’t throw the pup overboard to sink or swim. If there is another dog there, you can use the older dog to get the pup to play in the water. Best is to find a shallow spot and wade out with Jr’s bumper and coax him into the water. Then toss the bumper a few feet and before he knows it, you can have him into some swimming water.

Tuttle8 has given some great advice.

Me and my pup (3.5 years old), a few friends and my new Benelli M2 are headed to Eagle Lake for some Teal hunting this weekend. I can’t wait.

Lee
 
As far as being gunshy, I think either they are or they aren't. I have seen Blueblood hunting dogs wet themselves when a .22 goes off. I took my Westie to the range when he was 4 months old and he never flinched the whole day. So, who knows...
 
As far as being gunshy, I think either they are or they aren't. I have seen Blueblood hunting dogs wet themselves when a .22 goes off. I took my Westie to the range when he was 4 months old and he never flinched the whole day. So, who knows...

But, that is a beautiful pup, Hedley...
 
Just felt like bumping this thread to show the progress of my little buddy. He's not at all gun shy, and shows a predisposition to pointing out quail. As he doesn't quite have much of an attention span yet(can't keep him out of canals and chasing buterflies), he hasn't been involved in much bird dogging, but I have taken him along nearly every hunt and worked with him in our hay pasture several evenings a week. The wife gets jealous of our outings and wonders why the Yorkie can't come along. :rolleyes: He almost caught himself a rather large Chachalaca a few days ago.

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Maybe by the time quail season is over, I'll have a pic of a big bobwhite hanging out of his mouth.:)

And our large shar-pei/lab mix rescue has taken him on as one of her own.
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Make every training session fun for him and he'll keep up his entheusiasm.

Good advise about being careful not to make him gun shy. Here is how I've trained 2 labs not to be gun shy:

I learned that both of them loved to ride in the car. So, from a very early age, I would let them go riding with me. During this "happy" ride, I would drive over to the local skeet/trap range. At first, I would just drive up to the parking lot with the windows closed. You can still hear the shots, but they aren't loud. We'd stay a few minutes and leave (of course, they would be looking all around being curious and I would let them do whatever they wanted to). After a couple of times of this, I would roll the window down and let them look out. Of course, the gunshots are now louder. Then, we graduated to getting out and walking around on a leash in the parking lot.

You get the idea. Within a week or so, we could walk up behind the shooting line and the dogs didn't care one bit.
 
He's not the least bit gun shy. That's the least of my worries. At first I thought he was deaf, since the first muzzle blast didn't make him skip a beat. He'd go right along sniffing the caliche andnot even look up. He will chase ejected shells from the autoloaders though. That lack of attention kind of worries me, but I'm working on it. Once he sees me getting the shotgun or rifle out, he thinks it's playtime and gets all excited.

And as far as socialization goes, he rides with me on the job (commercial sub-contractor) every once in a while and gets to meet all kinds of people. He gets along with our other two dogs and cat as well as my in-laws' two dogs. He actually grooms our little five pound Yorkshire. And he's warming up to the fact that our horses are just a little too big to wrestle with.

And even though our lab mix has no formal training to my knowlege(showed up on our property in really bad shape about 6 months ago), she's a natural. Her good habits have rubbed off on him, and she's been a great help in raising him.
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