I sent off my lab to Mad River Kennels for training 3 months ago. This is the first dog I have ever sent for professional training and the last 3 months have been the longest 3 months EVER. I am very excited to get him back and continue working with him myself. I am sure my wife will be happy since I will be able to go work with my pup in the evenings rather than talk to her all night about him. Now its just a waiting game on dove season to start up to see how much more enjoyable this season will be with a well trained dog!! Oh yeah, and for the hunt tests to start back up in the fall...

You are absolutely correct. Time doesn't fly when somebody else has your dog.

Dropped Blue off on March 1st for master Level training. It has been rough. My wife randomly texts me pics of him almost daily. Think she misses him more than I do.

I feel your pain. I don't want mine out of my sight anymore.

Heard that...my puppy is at Cripple Creek right now. I can't wait to get her back!

Mine leaves tomorrow for Zion... going to be tough I'm sure...

Not sure I could do it... but would be nice to have a professionally trained dog.

Hey Chas;

How's Punkin' doing with her training?

Edit:
Oops...wrong post...not meaning to hijack.

Sorry

I hear ya. Dropped my pup off in early may and have only seen him once. It sucks for sure but the overall outcome should be worth it. I have another train with your dog day coming up soon and i cant wait.

I dropped mine off a week ago and it's tough. I want to put my trust in the process but I just worry about my dog and worry that he's not learning what he should.

The trainer talked to me today and apparently pup isn't progressing as quickly as he had hoped. When he originally met the dog he said it was very advanced in terms of hunting desire, interest in birds, natural retrieving ability, and obedience in his retrieves. Apparently he's not quite as advanced in his on leash portion of obedience. He did say that force fetch won't be necessary though. Hoping for the best!

Just about every statement made here is a huge red flag.

How so?

A week is not nearly long enough to make any of the determinations made here. One of two things has happened here. Either the trainer has been forced into making statements by you asking for an update on progress too early (to which the honest answer should have been "It's too early to tell") or assumptions are being made way too early with this dog. Going to get a hand thrown bird and coming back with it does not constitute advanced hunting desire or obedience on the retrieve. Even a week of on lead obedience is just barely enough to get the dog introduced to all of the commands and gives no time to measure progression or lack thereof.

As for the force fetch comment, again, just because the dog will pick up a hand thrown object when they want to does not mean that they do not need to be force fetched. Force fetch is about pressure conditioning, retrieving on command is a byproduct. Most trainers of even service dogs use force fetch as a way of solidifying things. There are a ton of assumptions made here that cause worry. It sounds like you have a nice young dog with some prey drive and desire to retrieve. That is some good raw material to work with but should not be mistaken for a dog that doesn't need a solid foundation of formal basics.

Okay, I gotcha. The trainer is my friend, has trained 3-4 dogs for my family before, and therefore is taking a little more interest in my pup than others. So when I asked him how it was going he was a lot more likely to give me a more detailed answer. His answer was that obedience is not going as fast as he had originally hoped, but pup is progressing just fine and there's nothing to be concerned about.

And advanced in this context means "advanced for an 8 month old puppy".

And as far as force fetch, my pup will retrieve to my feet on command. Will not go until I tell him. And will nearly always immediately retrieve it back to me. He has even made water retrieves under my training. So basically I asked my trainer that if he could avoid it I would prefer to not use force fetch (I have had 1 dog trained with it and 1 dog without - just my preference after my experiences). My only concern was that the pup was not retrieving to my hand, only to about 2-3 feet from my feet. So if the trainer couldn't correct that, then I assumed force fetch would be the only option. Well, the trainer has spent a lot of time playing with the pup in the last week and his opinion was that (when we get to that stage in his training) that the pup won't need force fetch.

You are absolutely right though, pup is good raw material and I am definitely not wanting to avoid the basics. I just had this hidden hope that the pup would advance quicker than my previous experiences based on how well he had responded to my initial training. Too early to tell of course.

Thanks for the reply, I know ya'll are top trainers in TX your reputation is well known.