My pup has shown great promise these past couple of weeks hunting. He doesn't always see where the bird land, so I wanted to start teaching him directions. Whats the best way to go about that?

It's a long process. You should get a training program or a sack of rocks.

The proper way is after force fetch he has the word fetch down you then start using over/fetch/over along with the hand signal and before long you can drop the fetch and even drop the over. That is over simplifying it but start small and work your way up. One pile, then two, three and up to five.

Of course before all of this you need to have him remote sitting.

Not sure how you would do it if you didn't have the word fetch to get them moving???

Get a good training program...theres plenty out there. Books, DVDS, etc.. Maybe try to find a training group in your area.

I am in Ft. Worth, are there any good training groups around here?
Thanks for the advise.

Here is a link to some of the AKC retreiver clubs in the state of texas,

http://www.akc.org/clubs/search/index.cfm?RequestTimeout=90

In the tritronics book they teach it to puppies, by hooking them up on the ff table. A bowl on each end, put a piece of hot dog in the one bolw at a time and teach over like that. It's just a puppy drill but helps them to get the idea.

Throw rocks at goose if he goes the wrong way

I do it all the time. Any pup that's got a retrieving drive just needs to match up the word 'fetch' to his favorite activity. Takes less than a handful of retrieves to add that to his vocabulary. Then I just line 'em up, back to a fence (pup has to be steady, first, so he'll stay put when you toss the bumper) Command "sit" and give the whistle signal so pup memorizes the sequence. Then chunk a bumper, command 'over', back it up with "fetch" and give the hand signal. When pup gets one side down, work on the other, then mix it up with doubles. (Roux is 4-1/2 months old and runs short little doubles on the 'over' command.) Eventually move away from the fence. Teach 'back' in a similar manner. Key is the retrieve is the reward. Pup can't get the retrieve/reward unless pup SITS and earns it. Then release on the 'over' or 'back' command. These become welcome words to pup - means he can get the retrieve. If you use whistle to get the sit before tossing the bumper, pup will associate the whistle with the sit & looking at you. Leads to a whistle stop. Been working for me, is all I can say.

I don't force fetch every dog, but we're not competing, just hunting. If they've got drive enough and responded well to obedience training, they peform well enough without it. Hard heads, dull dogs, super dominant dogs and dogs I want to push further might get FF. Since it's not standard in my training program, I have a variety of ways to train without it.

lol... Really? I play this game in the house with treats or toys for the pups all the time. "Sit" Pup sits, mezmerized by the treat/toy. "Look" Pup is already looking. Chunk treat with "over!" and pup takes off. Pups love this game. Heck, the big dogs still like it when they're older. Here I thought we were just being silly.

I gotcha...so you are tossing and doing one bumper at a time and not per say pile work?

Interesting.

Pile work comes after they get the intitial over and back done

Okay...maybe bad word, you are right. I used piles at the two overs and 3 backs before I went to the force to pile and that is what I am referring too. It sounds like she is just throwing marks and making them sit to train the overs/backs. Sounds like it works and I am not knocking it just trying to understand.

I hear ya, there are all kinds of ways to do it lol. Three handed casting is the second drill(that i use) after teaching the initial over/back with one bumper. When first starting 3 handed casting I will toss one bumper to the first pile i want them to go to, cast them, then to the second and cast them third pile and cast. After that they go without getting one tossed.
I use a piles set up in the letter V to work on angle backs...just my way

Sounds like I got a lot more work ahead of me, but its all worth it to see him work. Thanks for all the advise.

Rocks work great and if you aint got a rock throw a shell it works good too

telling someone how to train a dog is like telling someone how to raise thier child.. alot of advise so far so i will give you mine. first thing get a trainning program, i recomend evan grahm . Evan is on alot of the sites and will be more than happy to help . second , join a hrc club . there are a few around you , Big D, cowtown... these guys train and have years of experience between them. just my 2 cents
btw there is alot of stuff you need to have your dog doing before even worrying about handeling, complete obedience, ff, cc. i wouldnt even worry about doing anything until all above is done and done right. you dont want to half way train it will bite you in the butt later i promise...

Absolutely! Heck, I'll hurl a chunk of mud to put a pup on the mark! They're young and when they're excited (ie hunting), they can get a bad case of amnesia, no matter how many times they got the drill right!

Just have him hail a taxi.

I do classroom instruction first so they have an idea what we're up against.



In this lesson we're discussing lake Ray Roberts and the fact that we need to avoid places newbies go.

Ironspike is right in my book. Force fetch is overused, if your dog has the correct instincts and brains you don't need ff. Baseball diamond is the easiest. Put pup at pitchers mound then have bumpers at 1,2,3. You at home plate, cast dog while walking in direction you want him to go.

Working on lining will save you a lot of casts, try using natural boundaries like fenceline, treeline and get pup to follow a straight line. You can also use baseball diamond but keep pup at home and send him to 1,2, or 3rd

i been using the base ball and it works got her up to 5 pts left, back left, back, back right , right shes still only 1.5 yrs old hard headed on remote sit she will when see cant find the blind then looks at u like okay where is it any help with remote sit i would really apreciate it

Here is 8 handed casting trill I did with my dog sping 2010..

Obedience is key. Use a long check cord and start out small. When you blow a whistle and pup doesn't sit, stop and get pup to sit. The more you blow the whistle and pup doesn't listen, the worse off you will be. I don't use a shock collar or force fetch. Common sense goes a long way when training a dog. You need to always remind yourself not to overthink or overwork your pup