Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs What Do You Expect From Your Lab?

A few dozen pheasants in a CRP field will train a dog for that game better than the best of trainers. You can do that a few times a week. I can’t duplicate that at any price. If pup will hunt close and under control, that’s the makings of a very good dog. Experience is hard to beat. I like them to stop on whistle so I can catch up if they’re trailing a runner. Hand signals are always a plus but lots of pheasant guys get along without that.

After 50+ years of hunting with labs I have found each to be different. My current female is a great pointing upland hunter. Have had others that could not sniff out an upland bird if it were on their nose. But, we’re excellent retrievers. As for expectations it is after some age has accumulated that their personalities matured. My expectations has always been a good family dog. Wise early warning element. Good buddy and above all lots of fun. I had two Chessies of which the last was a real lunkhead. No more chessies for me. I am sure that there are great ones. But, labs for me and my family. My opinion only! MTG

Pretty good current story...

One of my pups was boarding for a few days recently.

He's beautiful, looks just like his dad. They're almost identical, actually.

They've been a little bit uncertain as to who's the boss when the youngster visits.

I was out cleaning the pool in the dog yard, and I heard them lite into each other. I mean, full-on. Not just a disagreement, but one of those, let's see who comes out the other end kind of altercations. Roaring and snarling. On the ground, up on two legs, on the ground, back up on two legs, teeth clacking together, neck bites, head shakes, shoulder bites, etc.

I was inside the 48" pool, and I stood up and barked "Hey!" at them.

They didn't stop, but they both gave me a sideways glance at the same instant. So I barked again, "HEY!!!"

They both stopped and went quiet, still looking at me sideways with one eye. I shouted, "Knock it off!!!"

They dropped down and walked away from each other.

First time I've EVER shouted down a dog fight. And I've shouted at a LOT of dog fights.

Kinda the same idea as what I expect out of a puppy by the time it's ready for a new home at 10 weeks. I don't expect them to know everything... but I DO expect them to LISTEN!

From there you can get a Lab to do anything!

These are the best dogs I've ever had.

I have a new one coming she is 4 wks old will pick her up at 7 weeks. At 68 I figure I have a new lease on life I don't know how much a lab can give but I am really excited about the coming years. I haven't spent any money that has affected me lIke this in many a year..mb

Congrats MB. The expectation and the work of a new puppy will keep you excited.

Ruby’s lying on the floor by my foot. She’s healing up after being spayed this week. No workouts for the next week or so. 18 months now, she’s doing handling drills and simple blind retrieves. We’ll keep working and gradually extend the distance. After that, she’ll just need lots of hunting experience. We’ll get some ducks but preserve birds are the best I can do here for upland training.

Sit is the single most important command after learning no. With sit (voice, whistle) and come (voice, whistle) you have control. Hand signals come next. A good portion of training especially when they are small puppies can be done in a hallway and during feeding time. Food is a great motivator with a healthy lab.

Glad to catch up to this thread.

Bob---sounds awesome
RS--stopping that with voice is impressive for sure.
WMR--sounds like a good bit of timing. We spayed Lola after one cycle, no regrets. She'd have been a great mom but my life just doesn't allow for it. I'll have to make it up to her.
Mike---I use "heel" in place of come. I don't use "come" at all. Means the same thing to them "get your ass over to me" I have found, and makes life simpler for them. I totally agree with your post. Control is the key and these commands establish it. I "discovered" control by accident with Cosmo, my first dog, who deserved a better trainer than me. After control is established, the rest of it comes pretty easy.

There have been five labs sharing parts of my seven decades on earth. Four were good bird dogs and retrievers. All were well behaved with people and great pets. My current lab has less hunting drive than any of the others but that's OK because I, too, have less drive than before. She's #2 on my favorite lab list and may hit #1 if she lives long enough. Recall and responding to voice commands reliably are absolutes with me. I was talking with a dog trainer who advocated clicker training. The idiot had no answer when I asked what she'd do if her dog was running toward traffic and she didn't have a clicker.

Hahaha no kidding. I love that response

I'd be fooling you if I said this is foolproof with my dogs but I try to make life easier for them in the following way.

Their collars beep twice when I hit the tone button. If I want them to heel, and don't want to use my voice, I use a two note whistle, same note. I snap my fingers twice if that isn't appropriate, say if there are folks close around. I tap my chest twice if I want them to see an action. All of it means, to them, "Pay attention, your personal lord and savior is requiring you to heel."

Using the cadence of two makes it easier for them to understand, in my small universe of experience. No need to over complicate things.

I can't speak for training a lab as a gun dog and besides training them for narcotics detection, tracking and SAR I've only ever trained one, start to finish as a Mobility assistance service Dog for a Wounded Warrior.Besides all the obvious, that dog had 11 tasks he had to perform. Judging by his ability to learn almost all by the time he was 11 weeks old, I'd say we don't expect enough from our labs...or other dogs.The first pic is him pushing a Handicap Button to open a door. He was 11 weeks old at the time and I had to lift him to reach it....Second pic is him opening a regular door when he was able to reach it himself. He took a piece of my heart with him....

That's cool and damned smart gonna tie a towel to the frig door and try to teach mine to get a beer ( for me) that is. Mb

Awesome

When he just started learning the process....

As I understand it “Clicker Training “ is just a variant of reward based training, which has been extraordinarily successful in training animals to do various tasks. The clicker itself is just a training tool to mark a desired behavior. Having one in hand is not needed to get a good response in a trained dog.

You are exactly right, the clicker simply marks a behavior, usually an increment in the behavior being taught to the dog.Once completed the clicker is no longer needed.Also FWIW if your timing is good you can mark incremental behavior with your voice.I've seen clicker trainers with schitty timing, and it doesn't help the dog at all.I've also seen it work like magic once the dog understands the clicker marks a behavior the trainer wants, but you're timing has to be good.Personally, I just use my voice.

I teach all dogs the command " Stop"...which is to be taken literally...whatever you are doing, wherever you are going etc. needs to stop immediately.It has saved the life of every dog I've ever owned .

interesting

Sit by voice or whistle will accomplish the same.

Stopping on voice, whistle or hand signal is vital to me. Pup has to stop and look or he can’t be directed to a blind retrieve. I also need to stop him if he’s far ahead trailing a pheasant so that the flush happens within gun range. I just catch up and then release him again.

I’m a stickler for obedience on or off lead. Every day, all the time. It seems that lots of guys allow this to go by the wayside once more advanced tasks are introduced. I think this often leads to sloppy overall performance.