LabCop

In this blog we will go through all the steps the handler must learn in preparing for training and testing. We will review all the steps in preparation for running a Hunt Test or Field Trial.
Anytime we train, a checklist is handy to have to insure we are totally prepared. I am sure you have your own checklist that would include such things as gear bag, glasses, whistle, gloves, lip balm, sunscreen, and fully charged electronics. Nothing sabotages a training day more than getting all set up and finding out the batteries in your wingers or e-collars are dead.
After putting [...]

I don’t know why people spend so much time naming their new pup.  For the first 4 months of the dog’s life he will think his name is “No”.  Every time he really starts to enjoy himself, his owner will shout out his new name “NO!” No simply means stop what you are doing.  Rather than just say no, let’s give him some direction.

There have been countless articles, videos, and books demonstrating how to train retrievers.

Let’s try a slightly different approach.  We will take a fictional dog named “Jessie”, an eight week old retriever, through all the socialization, obedience, drills, [...]

In our last column we covered the first command “Sit”.  We seamlessly covered 2 other commands on the bottom rung of our training pyramid.  The first was “Sit” at a distance.  You first want the dog to sit fairly close to you and then over time, to be able to get your dog to sit at greater distances from you.  I watched the expression on the face of a person who had never observed advanced retriever training absolutely gape when on a single whistle at 400 yards away an Open dog stopped on a dime and looked back at his [...]