I'm about to purchase a 8 month old black lab. Is 8 months to old to start training or would it be better since they are a little bit older? Also are there any good instructional DVD's to purchase to assist in the training process.

Any feedback is greatly appriciated.

Good luck and be safe,

Hunter

I trained a mutt that was 8 months or more . Turn out to be a super good hunting partner Ole Sallysue. I used Water Dog but I am sure there's plenty of good DVD or books out there

Get the book Tritronics retriever training.

Is it too old... no. Would you prefer to start fresh at 7 weeks... yes.

Make sure you have obdience down pat before starting any formal retriever training. I'm in the process now with a 15 week old puppy and quickly learning obdience is key to everything.

My pup is 15 weeks too. Right now it is about the obedience! The retrieving is just play time till the other is ironed out.

Not too old,but you may have a few more bad habits to unlearn than if you started out at 8 weeks.

You didn't mention what, if any, training pup had had so far.

Here's a suggestion for book and videos...

http://rushcreekpress.com/

However I also strongly recommend joining a Hunting Retriever Club and avail yourself of the assistance and encouragement from other club members. Might try one or more of these depending on where you live ...

http://texasretrievertraining.com/hunting-retriever-clubs.html

I started training mine at 5 months and now she is about to get her master title. Its never too early to start.

He has no training except the basic sit and stay. I havent had much time because of school. Thought I'd start the more difficult stuff over Thanksgiving Break

Main thing is have fun. And you shouldn't spend much time on training. It is best to do fewer well controlled retrieves than multiple ones. Make it easy for your dog to be successful and it will be less stressful for the both of you. Don't rush.

Not too late at all.

I think most pros wait to take a dog until their adult teeth are in which is about 6 months.

Not too old I have trained dogs over s year old.
Where you live? I'm always looking for Someone to train
With.

I would make sure you have time to keep up with it. 10 minutes once or twice a day is all you should need to get started. How are you training right now? if you don't have a system or method I would look into one. There are a lot out there, just depends really on your budget. I use Fowl Dawgs by Rick Stawski ($60 for 3 DVDs). I read someone uses Wolters "Waterdog" - don' take this personally whoever that is, but that book is just not very good. It gives enough knowledge to make a few improvements but it leads to a lot of dead ends.

I started training at 6-8 months, been a year and a half and I can't be happier. I would seriously consider getting at least a year in before duck hunting, dove really isn't all that technical, but waterfowl has a lot of issues you could run into.

6 months, but no force fetch until puppy teeth are gone.

So your fine at 8..but see above before FF

8 mos. is not too old at all! We start them as pups but formal training doesnt start til 5-6 months.

Puppy Traing begins at 7 weeks old.

But Offical Training does not take place until 6-7 months. with males, I like to wait until 8-9 months. Pressure should not to be used until 6-7 months. In puppy training, a person should not use prussure until later. everything should be fun, and basically a bonding time. Lessons can be taught, and impressions made, but but at a young age, pressure can cause the pup to losing desire.

8 months is a great time to start Offical Training.

I adopted a 5 1/2 year old DD. I am currently training him and he is doing great. If the dog is smart, there won't be a problem. If the dog is dumb, then it doesn't matter what age you start.