I have a new lab puppy and I am looking for a trainer in the Fort Worth, TX area. I know a very good trainer in Bryan, TX but that is to far to drive for one on one work. Can anyone refer a trainer in the area.

Contact Tioga retrievers that are North Dallas. Supposed to be the best and has all kinds of different options.

Yes, get with a pro. They can evaluate your dogs bloodline and potential as a field dog. Self training for BASIC obedience is fairly easy BUT if you really want a well behaved gun dog, one other hunters will like having in the blind, get help with a pro. There are some parts of training which are very difficult, re: force training, steady to shot, etc.
If your pup has the talent to compete in hunt tests or even field trials be prepared to board your dog with the trainer for a LONG time and it gets plenty $$$. The best set up is to join a retreiver club, talk to other memebers. They can guide you. Plus you will need other dog people to train with, throwing marks, gunners, etc.

This may all sound like too much. I started this way. I bought a pup, only thinking I wanted a pet to take hunting....NOT! I had no idea what I had. She turned out to be a great dog. This is the hard part..I was lucky enough to find a great trainer who knew my dogs bloodline and knew she had potential. He had a starter gund dog class once a week in a wherehouse on Plano. There we learned the basic obedience, he forc trained our dogs there, not fun. From there he suggested to som e us that our dogs had potential to be pretty good trial dogs. we continued our training one a week, he would give us homework to work on over the week...I could go on, it is allot of work and can get expensive BUT it is a blast!!! You will meet a bunch of great people and become best friends with your pup.

Ive seen tioga retrievers run at prolly 3 hunt tests this year and I wasn't impressed. She didnt pass many dogs. It looked like she had alot of show labs that she was trying to put titles on.
The pros that i have been most impressed with far as observing them at hunt tests is Rody Best, Kurt wichman or Matt Larkin. It seems that all there dogs were very obedient and prepared for the tests. Just my two cents!

The obedience really stands out on dogs ran by Rody.

this is where its at!
tim and angie at 940 440 0018