But training should also be conducted in different types of weather and with other dogs and people. These should include different types of terrain, such as wetlands, fields of tall grass, woods, and grazed pastures. Doing the same thing, the same way, and later expecting a different outcome can be a pitfall in retriever training."įor the trainer, this means developing a portfolio of accessible and varied training locations. "Shelby never mastered his performance in different locations because his handler didn't provide diverse training experiences. Our training rule is to practice each individual skill or lesson five times in five different locations to ensure habits are well entrenched," Stewart explains. "Dogs don't transfer skills from one location to another without transitional training. "Ol' Shelby just never transferred the skills he learned in his familiar training ground to other locations. "As a joke and being a bit of an antagonist, I began to call his dog 'Shelby,'" Stewart says. "He never does this at Shelby Farms," the client told him. At Wildrose, the dog didn't seem to remember any of its previous lessons. Mike Stewart of Wildrose Kennels in Oxford, Mississippi, recounted a story of a client from Memphis who regularly trained his Lab at Shelby Farms, a massive urban park near DU headquarters. Change the Sceneryīoth dogs and people can excel in their comfort zone, but when faced with an unfamiliar situation or setting, they sometimes find it difficult to adapt. Here are some of the techniques they use to achieve peak performance from their retrievers. With that in mind, we asked a group of expert trainers to share some of their wisdom about how to make a retriever the best dog it can be. Sometimes you need a little help from a professional to offer guidance on how to handle man's best friend. Being such wonderfully uncomplicated beings, they need us to do their worrying."īut worrying will not in itself bring wisdom. "They fight for honor at the first challenge, make love with no moral restraint, and do not for all their marvelous instincts appear to know about death. "I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren't certain we knew better," wrote the late George Bird Evans in Troubles with Bird Dogs.
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