Duck Dog Questions

[SaltwaterSlick]

Wonder if we're getting from the same litter? I'm planning to pick my new girl up Saturday. I think mines in ennis.

Love that on this forum people appreciate water dog! Go to some of those "retriever" pages and you better bring an umbrella for the storm of don't hunt until 2 years old! Force fetch! No family dogs! No playtime! Love outside in a cage and only work! Lol.

Enjoy the pup!

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Well hell if you wait til the dog is grown to train it, it'll HAVE to be an "outside" dog!! Did you ever hear such bunk?!

[CTR0022]

1. Where does your duck dog sleep? Inside/outside/crate/bed?
In the bed with me

2. What are some key things to teach your dog or introduce your dog early on (first 4 months)

Basic obedience is key, if its a retriever( lab, golde, chessie) it should rerieve pretty naturally but sometimes young dogs just don't have the retrieving down yet. It may take 9-12 months for those instincts to kick in.

3. What are your must have training tools to use to start training your dog at 4 months?
A small bumper, check cord and treats

4. Your biggest do's and don'ts
Don't force it let them come along on their own and its best to train several times a day for short periods

5. Which name- Ace or Jake
Ace

[hopedale]

1. Where does your duck dog sleep? Inside/outside/crate/bed?
2. What are some key things to teach your dog or introduce your dog early on (first 4 months)
3. What are your must have training tools to use to start training your dog at 4 months?
4. Your biggest do's and don'ts
5. Which name- Ace or Jake

1. You duck dog is a member of your family. Sleeps inside
2. Fist thing everyone in the family learns, and this includes your duck dog see comment in item 1, is the safe place for the dog is his kennel. So, once the pup goes into the kennel on their own, no one messes with the dog. Its his safe place to relax. My dog loves her kennel so it was the best advice I had ever gotten.
3. Lazy lead. Should be focused on basic obedience right now; sit, here, dog's name, dog solization, etc
4. Do remember at 4 months your dog is still a pup. Training should be fun and not over whelming.
5. Ace (jake works at state farm)

Highly recommend this DVD Duck Dog Basics DVD with Chris Akin

https://www.gundogsupply.com/duck-dog-basics-dvd-with-chris-akin.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=DUCK-DOG-BASICS-DVD-WITH-CHRIS-AKIN&gclid=CjwKCAiAv4n9BRA9EiwA30WND_dpMmwFCX9CCSLf7OUB2MCyG6VWLOYHnpCa2mBI5pVCvJ7l_G6L6hoCuF8QAvD_BwE

[TXBowhunter11]

1. You duck dog is a member of your family. Sleeps inside
2. Fist thing everyone in the family learns, and this includes your duck dog see comment in item 1, is the safe place for the dog is his kennel. So, once the pup goes into the kennel on their own, no one messes with the dog. Its his safe place to relax. My dog loves her kennel so it was the best advice I had ever gotten.
3. Lazy lead. Should be focused on basic obedience right now; sit, here, dog's name, dog solization, etc
4. Do remember at 4 months your dog is still a pup. Training should be fun and not over whelming.
5. Ace (jake works at state farm)

Highly recommend this DVD Duck Dog Basics DVD with Chris Akin

https://www.gundogsupply.com/duck-do...hoCuF8QAvD_BwE

I am a state farm agent. thats the only reason we are considering it

[TXBowhunter11]

Update: Jumpin Jack Flash is dads line, he is a red, rebel is moms line. embark dna tests shows all health clearances and clear of genetic defects like OFA and HIPS. About to upload pics of him.

[TXBowhunter11]

Update: Jumpin Jack Flash is dads line, he is a red, rebel is moms line. embark dna tests shows all health clearances and clear of genetic defects like OFA and HIPS. About to upload pics of him.

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[TXBowhunter11]

Mom and dad


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[hopedale]

1. You duck dog is a member of your family. Sleeps inside
2. Fist thing everyone in the family learns, and this includes your duck dog see comment in item 1, is the safe place for the dog is his kennel. So, once the pup goes into the kennel on their own, no one messes with the dog. Its his safe place to relax. My dog loves her kennel so it was the best advice I had ever gotten.
3. Lazy lead. Should be focused on basic obedience right now; sit, here, dog's name, dog solization, etc
4. Do remember at 4 months your dog is still a pup. Training should be fun and not over whelming.
5. Ace (jake works at state farm)

Highly recommend this DVD Duck Dog Basics DVD with Chris Akin

https://www.gundogsupply.com/duck-do...hoCuF8QAvD_BwE

I am a state farm agent. thats the only reason we are considering it

ok, Jake it is.

For the record, we just changed to State Farm

[redfishted]

So I’ve had hunting labs for about 20 years and this is my opinion, I move my dogs crates outside in the winter so they can adjust to being cooler, my house dogs acted like they were freezing to death when I would take them from the house to the water in cold weather, handled it much better when they stayed outside.

[Thatstheguy]

1. Where does your duck dog sleep? Inside/outside/crate/bed?

In the bed with wifey and me

2. What are some key things to teach your dog or introduce your dog early on (first 4 months)
birds if you can, simple obedience,
3. What are your must have training tools to use to start training your dog at 4 months?

check cord, small bumper, duck wings, Bill Hillman puppy dvd (Best thing for a puppy IMO)

4. Your biggest do's and don'ts

Be patience and take your time. Don't stick to timelines. 5-10 minutes to start and increase as you go month by month.

5. Which name- Ace or Jake

ace

[SaltwaterSlick]

That is a beautiful pup!! Color is fantastic! Build looks stout too!!

Don't know that I'd dress "Jake" in Khakis tho!

[SaltwaterSlick]

A few little side details you may want to consider... If you will crate the dog at night, (Mine sleeps in a crate in the house at night, stays outside in a kennel during the day) I'd suggest you feed the pup in the crate, teaching it that is where the food is will help with making that crate his favorite place to be. One thing you never want to do is use "treats" as a reward for a retriever... the love of the retrieve IS their reward. Don't know how you plan for the dog to travel with you, but mine rides in the floorboard on the passenger's side of my truck, either front or back. She's NEVER allowed in the seat, only the floorboard... She's been riding there since I brought her home last year the week before Christmas... I also have a crate for her, but if it's just us, she rides up front with me. By starting them from day 1 riding there and not letting her go anywhere else in the truck, I have no issues with her getting in the seats or anywhere else in the truck... I've done this with my last 3 labs and it has worked out really well... Things like the feeding, the riding and such are just as important training as any you do... It occurs naturally and constantly and an 8 week old pup is so eager to learn, it's ridiculous. This eagerness and capacity to learn continues until they are grown, but the early weeks (like weeks 12-20) are the prime teaching time for discipline and voice/whistle commands. If you can get those down during that period, your training job is 2/3 complete... The rest comes easy. He's a Lab. He will retrieve. You just have to teach him when and how you want him to retrieve... Once you have a disciplined pup, the retrieving part is easy... takes a lot of time if you want to train him for field trials or hunt trials, but it's not hard. IF your pup is not disciplined and almost perfect on verbal commands, do not try any serious retriever training beyond playing fetch until discipline is mastered. An undisciplined dog is untrainable, and will be a constant source of tension and anxiety for you and the dog and the family (if you have a wife and/or kids)... Being a male, at some point you will notice that he starts to "revolt" and not want to "train"... different dogs respond differently to different types of correction for this, but you MUST show him YOU are boss, and boss ALL the time... the DVD and more importantly, the actual book Water Dog will help you a lot with methodology for when this happens... It occurs when the dog starts to mature and he wants to push his pecking order up a notch in the family setting... That could be a trying time for you and your pup, even the family... Not bad, but want you to be aware of that... It happens with ALL males... Females do it too, but not so much. I prefer training females, but I sure like the toughness and boldness many males hunt with!!

[RShockley]

1. Where does your duck dog sleep? Inside/outside/crate/bed?
2. What are some key things to teach your dog or introduce your dog early on (first 4 months)
3. What are your must have training tools to use to start training your dog at 4 months?
4. Your biggest do's and don'ts
5. Which name- Ace or Jake

1. My personal dogs all sleep inside and most of them end up sleeping in my bed at some point. No real issue with this and weather tolerance. Each dog has an individual tolerance to weather conditions and I have noticed minimal changes with dogs living inside vs outside. I feel living inside does help with training in teaching the dogs how to deal with a behavior standard and boundries in their life. Also great for some dogs that just need a different pace outside of training.

2. Introduce as many environments and textures under their feet as possible. We get them in all sorts of cover situations, stairs, on unstable objects, decks where they can see between boards. Weather permitting get them properly introduced to water. We start controlled bird introductions as early as 6 weeks old with our litters but it starts almost immediately upon getting a pup in for training. We also start teaching informal obeidience and lead training very early while keeping expectations in line with remebering the dog is still a puppy.

3. Training tools include bumpers, leads, 30-50 foot long check cord, a few 5 gallon buckets, some form of remote launcher is an added bonus unless you have someone to throw birds for you.

4. Do expose them to as many things as possible in the most controlled situation possible. Don't take your dog to a gun range or just start shooting over them to see if they are "gun shy". That is a great way to create a dog that is sensitive to loud noises and that is not very condusive to training a hunting dog. There are very few legitimately gun shy dogs but there are a ton of dogs ruined by inappropriote gunfire introduction.

5. I do like Jake. I have run into a lot of dogs named Ace lately.

Good luck and enjoy the new pup. Feel free to reach out with any questions throughout training.

[jhunter77]

Lots of good advice. I will add 2 other things. Dont let a 20lb pup do thing you would not want a 80lb dog would do. They are funny balls of fur, but if they get away with it as a pup they will get away with it as an adult. Second, teach the dog to blood trail. I know he is a retriever, but even if you never put him on a blood trail his nose will be better for it. My lab trails great. You can start them on this when they are a pup. Mine trailed his first deer before 3 months old.

[Storm]

. Once you have a disciplined pup, the retrieving part is easy... takes a lot of time if you want to train him for field trials or hunt trials, but it's not hard. Saltwater Slick training for field trials is definitely not easy , I train daily and haven't finished a derby yet. We won't run a trial again til summer next year and that will be a qualifying. But it's enjoyable to spend so much time teaching a dog and having that much quality time with them.