Retriever Madness: Training the World's Favorite Gundog

By Nona Kilgore Bauer

Author Nona Kilgore Bauer begins Retriever Madness with a chapter called "Know Your Retrievers," and few know their retrievers like this expert author, trainer, and breeder. Bauer introduces the readers to the six retrievers recognized by the American Kennel Club, among them two of the most popular companion dogs in the world, the Labrador Retrieve

• Language: English
• Publisher: CompanionHouse Books
• Release date: Apr 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781593786366

Book preview

Author Nona Kilgore Bauer and her beloved FC/AFC Chances R Mein Schatzie, taking home a field-trial blue ribbon.

Introduction

Some thirty-odd years ago, I watched in awe as an English-bred Golden Retriever named Jolly Again of Ouillmette come roaring back with his duck, both fur and feather flying. All-Age Qualified in field trials, Tuffy, as he was known, was never happier than when he was doing his bird thing. By golly, I wanted a dog like that!

To the hunting aficionado, there is perhaps no sight more thrilling than a retriever running at top speed with his mouth stuffed full of his prized bird. Be it duck, pheasant, or other plumaged fowl, you could swear that the dog is grinning behind all those feathers. Seeing the retriever doing the job that he was bred for is what hooked me on this dog sport.

That magical moment with Tuffy introduced me to this fascinating retriever game and to the field trialers, hunters, and trainers, amateur and professional alike, who compose the human aspect of this sport. These are talented people who are passionate about training their dogs and have been generous in sharing their knowledge with other dog nuts such as myself.

This book is intended to guide the novice owner through the basic baby steps of training a hunting retriever from puppyhood through his first year. I agree with the many experts who believe—indeed have proved—that the foundation of a dog’s success is based on the quality of his training and exposure during his first few months of life. Like a newborn infant, a puppy is born with a blank slate for a brain, possessing only whatever natural instincts he inherited from his ancestors.

In years past, training was delayed until a dog was at least six months old, but that delay failed to take advantage of the opportunity to imprint a puppy’s brain with positive experiences. We were told that a puppy was too young to learn his lessons and we should let him just be a pup before we filled his head with rules. In the process, he learned bad habits that would be difficult or even impossible to erase, and the owners failed to teach the pup the good habits he would need for proper house manners and any future breed-specific jobs. Like a sponge, his little brain was ready to soak up new information, but we let him develop into any dog.

Fortunately this philosophy has changed, and puppy-training methods also have evolved, with most using positive incentives and rewards.

To successfully train your dog, you must first understand how a puppy learns and realize that you cannot correct a pup for behavior he does not know is wrong. You must first teach him what you expect of him before you can scold him for not performing a specific task. This will take repetition—lots of it—so the puppy can retain the information in his long-term memory.

What does all this have to do with teaching your retriever how to be a decent hunting dog? Without the right foundation, he will never reach his full potential as a hunting partner. A fair-to-middling hunter, probably, but he will not be the wow hunting dog your friends will gush about.

Beyond the basic training principles, we’ll also review important early retrieving lessons as well as the yard work and typical drills used by professional trainers and experienced amateurs. As in our basic puppy training, we’ll break all of this down into baby steps that you can understand and thus help your dog understand. After all, he’s the one this book is all about.

This book is not meant to be the be-all and end-all source on teaching your retriever how to do his job. There are as many methods of and books on retriever training as there are trainers—and that’s a lot. As an adjunct to this book, you may want to consult friends who are experienced amateur trainers or seek out professional trainers to supplement the advice offered here. How far you go beyond these pages depends on what kind of hunting partner you desire. Remember, no matter to what level of proficiency you aspire, the time you spend (or don’t spend) with your pup and the lessons he learns from you will determine how good—or great—he will grow up to be.

Before we begin, I’d like to add a word on the electronic collar (ecollar) as a training tool. Almost every recently published book on retriever training includes information on how to condition and train dogs with e-collars. Professional trainers use the collars, as do the majority of experienced amateurs. Now employed in obedience training as well as in fieldwork, e-collars, when properly used, are efficient and effective training tools. In many cases, they are more humane and less stressful than the old-fashioned methods with nagging collar jerks and the even harsher methods using riding crops and cattle prods (oh yes, they did!).

However, the e-collar does not teach the dog what he is supposed to do. The dog must learn the behavior first; only then is the collar used to reinforce that knowledge. Timing of the electronic stimulation is critical and requires a skill that can be acquired only with time and experience, usually at the dog’s expense while his novice owner is getting the hang of it. More important, one cannot dismiss the element of human anger—the handler/trainer gets upset with the dog’s refusal to do what he thinks the dog should do, when in reality the dog is not properly conditioned or simply doesn’t understand, and the dog is consequently shocked beyond all reason. I’ve seen it happen far too many times, so I can’t justify including a section on e-collar use knowing that even one person who reads this book might misuse the collar and abuse a dog.

For those interested in collar training, buy not one but several books that include detailed instructions on collar use, and find a seasoned amateur or professional to work with who is experienced with e-collars and whom you respect. When choosing that person, ask yourself whether his or her retrievers are happy, tail-wagging dogs who burst out of the truck or kennel with eagerness to go to work. If so, that’s a good sign that the dogs have been properly conditioned and that they accept the collar as a fact of life. I hope you will find and learn from one of these trainers.

Unquenchable desire to retrieve and love of water define all six AKC retriever breeds.

Chapter

1

Know Your Retrievers

Hunter, house pet, major hugger. How better to describe the typical retriever, regardless of its heritage and breed type? Sharing a common ancestry, the six American Kennel Club-recognized retriever breeds were developed and bred over the past two centuries for the same purpose—to retrieve birds and deliver them to hand.

The Six American Kennel Club Retriever Breeds

All six breeds are water specialists who will retrieve birds shot over the water. So great is their desire to fetch those birds that they will happily break through ice in the coldest weather in their pursuit of downed waterfowl. They also serve on upland game birds and will quarter, flush, mark, and fetch; these are multipurpose hunting partners in a variety of fur coats.

Chessie puppies in shades of the three acceptable breed colors (LEFT TO RIGHT): brown, sage, and deadgrass.

Partner is an apt description, as retrievers are also very social creatures, each breed having been developed to work in tandem with the hunter. While the pointer works independently and often out of sight of his handler, the retriever hangs around, working within gun range so the hunter can take aim and fire. And at the end of a tough day in the field, the retriever will climb into your lap and share your popcorn. What’s not to love?

Of the six breeds, the Labrador Retriever has topped the popularity charts for more than two decades, with twice as many Labs registered with the American Kennel Club (AKC) as Golden Retrievers, the next most popular retriever. The other four breeds are far outnumbered, which has in fact helped to preserve their purity.

Hundreds of books praising and comparing the unique qualities of retrievers have been written, read, and dissected by retriever fanatics and hunting aficionados. Given the volume of information out there, there’s no need here for lengthy discussions on individual histories or which breed does what best. This book will address another commonality, the training basics necessary to turn a typical retriever into a respectable hunting companion.

That said, you must also bear in mind the personality differences that exist among these six breeds. While the training methods are the same, each breed’s response to the methods will differ slightly according to breed-specific qualities. It will be up to you to factor those differences into your own training program based on the breed that you’ve selected.

Now let’s talk retrievers …

CHESAPEAKE BAY RETRIEVER

The Chessie may be the ultimate retriever in the breeds classified in the AKC’s Sporting Group. The only true American retriever, the Chessie was developed and bred on American soil (or perhaps water might be more appropriate). His superior duck-dog qualities are attributed to two Newfoundland puppies rescued from a shipwreck in the Chesapeake Bay in 1807. The male, named Sailor by his adoptive owner, and the female, Canton, went to live on opposite shores of the Bay area. Both became extraordinary ducking dogs, and although never bred to each other, their superior qualities were very carefully reproduced in their offspring. In the late 1800s, Bay