I am the proud new owner of a beautiful female black lab pup! I just brought her home yesterday! She is about 12 weeks old according to her papers and already very intelligent although she has had no training. I am intend to use her as a retriever and a tracker. I started her kennel training today and so far she is doing very good. She has not wanted to eat or drink much but that may be due to the new surroundings. I want to use her as a retriever and a tracker. My first question is, is that even possible to do? To train a pup for dual purpose? I would also like any advice on feeding schedules, proven training techniques, and any other good advice on training as this is my first gun dog.

Thanks!

congrats and
that said I leave food out for my dogs to eat as they want it seems to work well for me. on the dual training I havent tried it with a young dog but I have buddies that have done it with their older(3-4 years old)dogs and they didn't seem to have any issue knowing what they were needed to do, but you might want to just work on one thing at a time till she gets older. As for training tips just look online, you can find things on youtube, the DU website, and many other places, ya just got to dig a bit.

CONGRATS! Post pics of your little gal - we all want to see her! The dual training should go just fine - it's amazing what dogs have the capacity to learn! But for now, your new pup just needs to know 1) Do I have a pack? 2) Who's in it? 3) Who's the alpha? 4) Will I get food & protection; and 5) What do I need to do to make the alpha happy?

Once she knows all this, she will feel secure & confident, start eating & drinking again and be ready to learn anything you, as the alpha, want to teach her. So for now, all ya gotta do is enjoy that new pup, introduce her to a few fun things and just let her settle in.

ENJOY!!!!

I'm posting from my phone right now. As soon as I get to a computer I'll put some pics of her on here. Thanks for the advice y'all!