Teaching a Hunting Dog

**asmith629** · 02-16-2012, 06:36 PM

A while back I was viewing this site, and I saw some books on Teaching a Lab to hunt. My lab, Hershe, just turned 3 months knows her basic commands (sit, lay, stay) fairly well, and I'm still working on her recall (if she's sniffing something she may as well be deaf). Anyway, I was wondering how old most dogs are before they go through more difficult tasks of learning other commands? Also, should I just focus on the basic commands for a few more months? For the most part she is very well behaved and loves playing fetch with a tennis ball. Thoughts & ideas are welcome.

**murphsmom** · 02-17-2012, 06:28 AM

My husband and I have learned lots from the Evan Graham videos.

**Dani** · 02-17-2012, 06:35 AM

DO you want to hunt with her? You can be doing a ton more with her even if you're not planning to hunt with her.

**asmith629** · 02-17-2012, 02:59 PM

First and foremost, I would like to train her to be a friendly, well-behaved lab. She's already working on that (as am I). Her big girl teeth are just coming in, so we'll see how it goes for the next three months.

Secondly, I would like to take her hunting and work on earning her AKC Hunt test title (Junior).

Lastly, as I am very new to owning a lab (my very first dog really). I would like to train her to do whatever else she can handle. I mean I'd like to see if she likes agility which my sister-in-law does, or some other sport (dock diving?). Just stuff for us to do together.

Like I said, she is still pretty young (just over 3 months), has all of her shots, and very eager to learn new things. Thanks for all the help.

**Dani** · 02-17-2012, 03:04 PM

It's never too young to introduce her to new things. That's what socialization is all about. Make training fun. Always. That will keep it interesting for her. If she's having fun, she'll want to please you and she'll perform. Keep sessions short at this point. Get a couple of duck wings and tie them to a bumper. She will love retrieving them and she'll get used to the idea of the bird feathers too. Find a local hunt club to help you with training. You may find that a local kennel club will help with general obedience and agility too. You can get her into puppy class now. It will be great for both of you.