Retriever Training Tips

To some, waterfowling without a dog is like playing baseball without a bat. The Fowl Pursuit Team is dedicated to promoting the use of highly trained retrievers. We regularly use the services of several professional trainers and are active in local retriever training groups throughout the year.

Successfully training a retriever requires a solid foundation of obedience followed by a structured training format. If you have questions or a retriever-training tip and would like to have it posted on the site please send an email to shawns@fowlpursuit.com.


List of Retriever Tips
[Throwing Marks] - [Practice Steadiness] - [Consistency in Commands]
[Proper Attire] - [Introducing Dog to Hunting Blind]
[Off-Season Training] - [Active Training]

Tip: When throwing marks for your dog don't throw bumpers from your side. Instead enlist a helper to throw marks for you. Your dog needs to learn to look out for birds, as this is where they will come from in hunting situations. By using a helper you can stretch your dog out to retrieve longer marks than you can throw. Quite often dogs that have been trained with bumpers hand thrown by the handler will hunt short the first few times a helper is used. This is because they've learned that everything they have ever retrieved has been inside of 40 yards, thus they check up and hunt. If this happens have your helper be ready to help out with either a verbal "hey, hey" or throw another bumper. Pretty soon the help won't be necessary.


Tip: Steady retrievers are the best retrievers and in the same sentence it should be mentioned that any good dog with desire will break under the right circumstances. With that said, steadiness should always be practiced. To often I have seen dogs allowed to break as birds are shot. There are several things that make this wrong. First is safety. Guns are going off, birds are falling and the last thing on the minds of a hunter is a dog that may run in front of the barrel. Second, it's critical that the dog "marks" the fall of each retrieve if it is to successfully bring the birds back to hand without help. Steadiness in reality is "go when sent." This practice should start in the home as a pup and be consistent throughout the life of the dog. Make the dog sit and then be released by a command before eating, have him/her sit while you open the door to kennel/house and stay there until you release him/her with a command to release. Steadiness in reality is basic obedience. Sit means Sit until another command is given. Kennel or Place means stay in the blind until sent. If your dog breaks while in training or hunting don't reward them by letting them retrieve. They will soon learn they'll get what they want if they obey their master.


Tip: Be consistent with your commands, tones and sequences. Dogs are creatures of habit by virtue and perform best when training ingrains their expectations. Consistent use of commands, tones and sequences communicate to the dog what the task at hand is. Try using the term "mark" with the dog at your side to signal that it is about to retrieve a bird it has seen ("marked") fall, then send the dog by it's name. You can expound on this by saying the dogs name softly for short marks and louder for long marks. Use a different, but consistent command for blind retrieves. Most commonly the command is "Dead Bird" to queue the dog for a blind retrieve, use the term here or heal to line the dog up in the direction of the blind. As the dog looks in that direction place your hand over it's head (not in front) and use the command "Back", again using tone to communicate the distance to the dog. After much practice the consistent communication queues will increase your dogs knowledge of its expectations.


Tip: When out in the field and handling a dog on blind retrieves be conscious of your background and what the dog will see when it is stopped by a whistle command and looks back at you for direction. The camouflage your wearing silhouetted against a tree line might be difficult for the dog to see you or your casts. If possible where a light (white) colored shirt under your jacket and remove the jacket to handle the dog. Also be sure to keep your fellow hunters down in the blind or at least out of site of the dog while running the blind. Too often hunters are up walking around or out of the blind. This only confuses the dog, as it's hard to pick you out of a crowd from a distance and take the appropriate cast.


Tip: Introduce your dog to your hunting blind. Don't wait until opening day to introduce your dog to the blind you're hunting. Take them out before the season and work the bugs out when you can focus your entire attention on training the dog not setting decoys and calling birds. Teach your dog that it has a "place" or "kennel" whether it's a dog box in a permanent blind or a Hide-A-Pooch from Final Approach. Throw several marks for your dog to familiarize him with how to enter and exit the blind and be handled from a remote location.


Tip: When training in the off-season, simplify your training set-ups to focus on single factors and building on the successes to achieve your goal. Example, you want to train your dog to mark and retrieve a long bird that sailed 200-300 yards beyond the cornfield your hunting, across a ditch, passed a weed line, and just the other side of a pond. Setting up and running a dog on all those factors before training on single concepts will almost always lead to a frustrated handler and confused dog. Start out by removing as many factors as possible. Depending on your dogs level of training you may want to start out with a helper throwing marks in a mowed flat field at lengths eventually reaching your desired distance. Once you've stretched the dog out to run a distance you can add another factor, such as cover. Start over again adding another factor with a shorter distance and move to the longer one. Next continue to add the factors of a ditch or fence line and so forth. Build upon success, don't test.


Tip: A good dog is only as good as its handler. If you enlist a pro trainer for your dog training needs it is critical that you maintain an active role in learning how to handle your dog. I've never met a good dog that could run itself and I've seen plenty of good dogs look bad by poor handlers. Dog and handler are a team and it takes two to achieve most tasks in the field.



We recommend you check out these fine retriever trainers!
[L & D Retrievers] - [Fine Line Retrievers]