Advice

[gundog virgin]

Hi All
As my username suggests this is my first venture into the gundog world. Been a Labrador owner for 20+ years but only ever purely as family pets although I have always prided myself on their good manners.
I have so many questions it's hard to know where to begin !!
I have just joined the United Retreivers Club (Lincs).
I have 2 black labs - 1 x bitch 17 mts and 1 x dog 25 mts.
My questions are -
Firstly is my bitch too old to start training ? I have been at it for a month and I feel we are making good progress but don't want to waste hers and my time if we're not going anywhere.
Secondly is it advisable to train only the bitch or should I train both. Just seems a bit ambitious for a novice and of course if she's too old then he is positively an OAP !!!! She is so keen and he appears a little non-plas with it all.
Lastly by training the one I notice that when they are out together her behaviour reverts to normal dog mode (running riot around the fields etc...) I feel I may have almost answered my own question there but hey !!


Would welcome any advice

[ohiogsp]

Your dog is never too old. Yours are not very old at all. You can train both dogs if you want. You only work with one at a time for most training anyway.

[Ruffshooter]

Ohio is right. Never too late and yours are still maturing.
You can train both. Make sessions short and consise. Write out a plan and goals.
Start out with one dog out of sight. Then work the other as time goes along, hook both dogs to a chain gang or tie out and work one at a time. Keep distracitons to a minimum. Note: if the placid male is not a distraction have him tied out right from the begining. it may make him see the attention he is missing and be more interested in the process. Also plenty of birds. That should kick start him.

Even though they are both a little older start with the normal sequence of training. General obiedience, Plenty of birds, and then the formal bird dog training.

Milsner has a book, I think the title is Back to Basics retriever training. It is one of the more thorough gun dog books. He does not show you how to train a field trialer but a hunting dog. I used it on my GSP for the Blind retrieve stuff. He has upland and water work in it.

Good luck.