Sending dog to a trainer

[loganwayne]

How have you guys dealt with sending a pup (6 months old) to a trainer with your wife/family being attached to the dog.
My wife is fighting me pretty hard on not sending the pup to training now. Even though we talked about it before we got her, but she bonded with the wife. It would be a 6 week camp where we could go on the weekends to work with her. I've started her training and she is doing well, but the one thing I wish I did with my old dog was to send him to a trainer. With the cost of dogs now i want the best dog i can get.

 

[*zap*]

Happy wife = happy life.

 

[BRTreedogs]

You bought the dog with the intention of it performing a job.
6 weeks isn't jack.

 

[loganwayne]

You bought the dog with the intention of it performing a job.
6 weeks isn't jack.

Ya I realize my dogs are pets more than hunting dogs. It's just the reality of where I live. But she's from good stock and I want to push her to succeed and become what I think she can be. 3 of her litter mates have already passed their natural aptitude testing. And one has won a field trial in the puppy class.

 

[johnnycake]

Buckle down and actually train it yourself. Go to clinics, take classes, and work the dog every day.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Self training your dog is doable, and will teach you the skills necessary to hold the dog accountable so the training sticks. Highly recommend. You can do it anywhere, I trained a hunting retriever living in an inner city apartment building.

 

[Wheels]

What are you expecting the trainer to accomplish in 6 weeks? That is a very short timeframe in a training program, and the pup is a bit young for force fetch if that's what they plan on doing while it is there. In reality, 6 months is the minimum for a well-trained dog at a pro.

 

[KurtR]

What are you expecting the trainer to accomplish in 6 weeks? That is a very short timeframe in a training program, and the pup is a bit young for force fetch if that's what they plan on doing while it is there. In reality, 6 months is the minimum for a well-trained dog at a pro.

6 months to have a started dog. 12-18 to have a well trained finished dog.

 

[Sierra Hunter]

I was in a similar situation, I have a full time pet most of the year and a solid hunting partner for 5 months. I sent our GSP away for 3 months when she was about 9 months and then again for a month about a year later. It was definitely worth it and helped hone those natural instincts that I could keep on when I was home. The wife hated it but when she saw how happy the dog was while working that made all the difference. The dogs live and are their happiest when in the field and training, and your wife is holding that back. I’d frame your position a little different should you choose to take it. Good luck

 

[Braaap]

Where are you located and what kind of dog is it?

 

[loganwayne]

What are you expecting the trainer to accomplish in 6 weeks? That is a very short timeframe in a training program, and the pup is a bit young for force fetch if that's what they plan on doing while it is there. In reality, 6 months is the minimum for a well-trained dog at a pro.

The 6 weeks is his basically starting a puppy. I've started some of this already. Then you hunt the heck out of the dog for a year then it would go back for 3-6 months total.

 

[loganwayne]

Where are you located and what kind of dog is it?

I'm in NC and she's a French Brittany

 

[DadOperator]

I have a Brittany and thought about professional training but decided against it. I just don’t have time to devote to keeping up on training and polishing so we focused on obedience. Then once that was squared away I started him on wings around the yard then expanded to hiding wings in natural areas. I then I had him on real birds and shooting over him at 5 months.

I’ve been lucky I guess because my dog is pretty decent. Not great, but better than a lot of other dogs I’ve hunted with around here. He’s definitely not perfect but he is a family dog mostly who happens to be a pretty good bird dog. I have been struggling with getting him to retrieve, but that is my next focus between now and next season.

Anyways, if he was to do it all over agin with him I wouldn’t do it differently. I think the time he spent with us to focus on obedience was enough to train and his instincts been ignited being on birds every weekend.

YMMV

 

[loganwayne]

My oldest dog I trained myself. He was a natural hunter and retriever. And he has been a good hunting partner. But I always wished I could have had someone help him and come to his full potential.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

What kind of training? Obedience? I have always laughed at guys who send hunting breeds to learn how to hunt or retrievers to learn how to retrieve. If you are have to pay a trainer to teach your dog how to retrieve or a pointer how to find and point birds, you are buying dogs with poor genetics. All I have ever trained my dog is general obedience and e collar conditioning. I didn’t even know guys sent their pointers to trainers to teach them how to point until a few years ago. I am chuckling to myself as I type this because of how ridiculous it all sounds.

 

[Irish Miner]

Early on, I thought that someday I'd like to have help in getting my pup "trained" by somebody else or have his natural ability honed so that he can be a "finished" dog someday. Now I'm not so sure I should.

I am completely blown away by the progress of my pup in his first year. He naturally has the prey drive and it's been fun to watch him grow so far. He's had great wild bird exposure this year and I've put forth alot of effort in teaching obedience and yet at the same time letting him be a pup.

Really excited to watch him mature and am quickly becoming a believer in the "train them yourself" mindset. All the You Tube videos and other online resources are a big help now days. I'm finding the rest is really all about the effort, commitment and time one is willing to spend to work with their dog. Some have varying levels of all these components for different reasons.

Best of luck!

 

[h2so4]

Send it. I had a German shepherd that had 3 weeks of boarded training. It was worth its price and more. Having a well
Trained dog is worth any challenge from home.

 

[KurtR]

What kind of training? Obedience? I have always laughed at guys who send hunting breeds to learn how to hunt or retrievers to learn how to retrieve. If you are have to pay a trainer to teach your dog how to retrieve or a pointer how to find and point birds, you are buying dogs with poor genetics. All I have ever trained my dog is general obedience and e collar conditioning. I didn’t even know guys sent their pointers to trainers to teach them how to point until a few years ago. I am chuckling to myself as I type this because of how ridiculous it all sounds.

I don’t think any one sends a retriever to learn how to retrieve. It is everything else that they have to do.

 

[loganwayne]

I've been working with her for several months and her progressed had slowed some. So this morning I decided I'd shot a few for her. She's been gun conditioned. Well I think her watching it bust and then shot she finally put it together and I saw some pretty good improvement this morning.

Something that I gotta work on is she doesn't want to retrieve a dead bird she just goes and points it again. I think some more time with birds and she will figure it out.

 

[Irish Miner]

Always fun to watch the progress. My pups issue is a bit the opposite. He's reluctant to "give" me the shot bird. He'd rather prance around with it teasing me. Lol