^{Author: Jim Crowley
http://www.hookandhunttv.com}

Anybody who knows me, knows that I am a dog lover.  I always have been and it seems that the older I get, the more I appreciate our four legged friends.  This hunting season with hold even more special memories for me as this year besides hunting with good friends, I have another new friend to bring along with me.  Chesney is a jet black Labrador retriever that my wife picked out.  I love my wife for many, many reasons, this is just another one!  Anyway as you are reading this, Chesney is 8 months old.  She continues to grow into a strong, well mannered, excitable pup.  She quickly went from little Chesney to; WOW she just cleared the coffee table with her rudder size tail!!!  Training a dog like Chesney was a whole new experience for me.  This was my first dog that I have ever trained.  Its an on going process that includes, amassment, frustration and utter and complete joy.  There is a lot that I have learned and continue to educate myself on.  Its an incredible experience so grab a cup of coffee and sit back and relax for a couple minutes and hopefully you will get a smile and a couple laughs from these recent exploits of mine.

When we brought Chesney home, at 7 weeks of age, she was a ball of fur with big paws.  An excitable little pup, she took to crate training very well.  A big thank you goes to decoy carver and friend, Pat Gregory who gave me the tools early on to train my dog.  Pat is a life long waterfowl hunter who is a student and teacher of the game, the heritage and the history.   Chesney was and still is a very curious puppy.  She checked out everything and quickly learned her way around the house.  She would follow me into my office and sit on my lap while I answered e-mails or wrote articles.  A bond formed quickly with this pup.   She would run through the house falling over those big paws just to keep up with my wife and I.  However, she wanted to be a member of the pack.   One of the tools Pat Gregory gave me was a well written book by Richard A. Wolters called GAME DOG.  Its how to train retrievers for upland and waterfowl hunting.   A fantastic book!

The book describes how Labs need to be trained from a very young age  and gives a week by week description with great pictures and easy descriptions.   To say the least, it has been a tremendous help and wonderful guideline.  Chesney picked up on the retrieving game very early.  We started her with a small plush duck toy that squeaked.  We only used that toy when we played the retrieving game.  It must be a game and it must be fun for the dog.  Chesney learned quickly that when I brought out the ‘duck”  good things were going to happen.  Labs love to please their owners.  I have learned that if you keep that in mind, the training becomes fun for both of you and this was just the beginning.

During the cold winter months, I read along with Mr. Wolters book and also formed a bond with Chesney where she started to learn what I was doing.  Slow at first, but that was not her fault.  I also learned that when you train a dog, you are basically teaching them another language.  Repeated one word commands with consistency works.  Do and say the same thing all the time for the job you want completed.  Chesney quickly learned, stay, sit and come.  She was not yelled at early on if she did not obey.  She was taken back to the position where she started and we tried again.  When she did it correctly, she was showered with praise.  This began to take a positive effect.  She began to trust me.  As the weeks went by, we started a new game with the “duck”  We went from fetch to learning “Dead bird”  I would hide the “duck” in the TV room.  Chesney had to stay on command and then I would briefly vanish from her site to hide the toy.  I repeatedly used the “dead bird” command to make her realize that she had to find the bird.  I hid the “duck” in easy places at first to build her confidence.  Every morning before I went to work, we did this for 10 to fifteen minutes in the same room with the same reward structure.  Over the winter months I watched her develop into an eager retriever.  I smile now just thinking about it.

As the months got a little warmer, I started outside with Chesney almost everyday.  When ever we spent time together, we did a little training without her even realizing it.  Occasionally we would be playing in the yard and I would just command her to come.  Then to heal and then to stay while I went some where out of her view.  I would wait a short amount of time and then yell for her to come.  You would literally see the grass tear up behind her as she made her way to find me.  The distances got longer as well as the time she had to stay.  She learned to trust me and my voice that I would release her from the command to come to me.  If she “broke” she was told “No” in a louder and stern voice so she realized she disobeyed.  She was again taken back to her spot and the commands were repeated.  She learned.  To this day, I still use my loud stern voice only when she disobeys.  Consistency is a must.

We now used a small throw able rubber duck for the retrieving game, so Chesney knew what a small bird would feel like.  That “dummy” became her bird.  Again I would only bring it out when we played the retrieving game.  She was not allowed to have it or even play with it unless we were playing the retrieving game.   I began to throw the dummy in short grass where she had to look for it.  Building her confidence with slightly taller grass and sparse cover.  I would occasionally hide the dummy behind a tree or in tall weeds to make her use her nose instead of her eyes to find that dummy.  Her confidence grew with each little success.  There is a lot to training a dog.  Love, patience and time are essential.  The rewards are incredible.  When Chesney brings back her first bird this year, I am man enough to admit, I might cry right there on the spot.  I know I will be proud of her!

Chesney’s water training was learned in about 5 minutes.  I took her to a lake by my house and started our standard retrieve training.  This time around, on the third retrieve, I threw the dummy close to the waters edge.  Chesney, as usual, was so excited to retrieve the dummy that she over ran the dummy and ended up in the lake.  She splashed for a second or two, look for the dummy, found it, came leaping out of the water and brought the dummy back to me.  Ok, I thought, lets try throwing the dummy about 5 feet into the water and see what she does.  I told her to “fetch”.  She took off and ran through the water to get the dummy and brought it back.  A great retrieve, that I was thrilled with.   So I praised her and threw the dummy about 15 feet out into a little deeper water.   Chesney took off upon command and leaped into the water!   I was amassed and so excited, I yelled good dog and was praising her all the way back.  She was so excited, that pup almost rolled me over as she ran into me, she was so excited.  That was literally the beginning of Chesney’s love affair with water.

Lots more stories to tell all of you and I am sure that some of you have incredible stories of your own.  If you have a retriever of any kind, I know you know the joy I am feeling and the whole new meaning this season will be to me in regards to hunting.  Its not about the kill, its not about the birds, its not about me. Its about my dog and seeing her joy of the game she loves to play.  Will she be a perfect retriever? No I am sure she won’t be.  I am not a perfect trainer, no way!  I am a guy who loves teaching and learning from a dog who loves to please her owner.  Its about building a trusting relationship with  that dog and  this owner.

I must also thank my good friends, Karen Green for her thoughts and experience with what I am doing along with my good friend and hunting partner, Kirk Ijams who has helped and encouraged me through out this experience.  Training a dog, requires a lot.  It requires a part of you, that you might not know about yourself.  It requires time and effort.  It also requires you admitting that when the dog does not understand the command, chances are its not the dog, it's you.   But in the long run, it will all be worth every second when I see Chesney bounding through the water on the first retrieve holding that bird and waging that tail.  In that moment, I will definitely be saying, what a dog.