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Crossfire wrote:

puma guy wrote:Spot
as in one black spot

Labs are great. Did she come from a line of hunting dogs?

Yes, she does. Both parents are hunters. The owner of the dad says they never trained him to retrieve. Just took him out to the field, and he fetched birds. Not sure I completely believe that, but we can be hopeful!

We plan to start basic obedience training as soon as we get her, and take her to the range with us as often as possible to get her used to the sound.

I have raised plenty of German Shepherd dogs, so I know obedience training, but we have not had a retriever before. We will keep y'all updated on the progress.

My first lab was as you describe the dad of your pup above. Never trained him. Just took him out and he started fetching.

I'm much happier with my current lab though. She is hand signal trained, whistle trained, and pretty steady in the blind. She brings the birds back to me and doesn't chew on them (I have mounted several that she retrieved).

The better trained your dog is, the more of a joy she will be to hunt with. Also, training her yourself creates a better bond than sending her off to be trained (my opinion of course).

One note on shooting around your pup. Start it early but ease her into it. Have someone she trust play with her while you shoot a few hundred yards away (preferably with something of a small caliber). Gradually move closer to her over several sessions and increase caliber to what you will be hunting with. The training book Water Dog covers this technique very well. I've used it on my dog and several of my buddies and it works.

My two cents...

Good luck and have fun!!!

Richard Wolters' Water Dog is the Bible for retriever training.

I'll echo the 5 (to 15) minutes a day is far better than and hour or two on Saturdays.

I used to get up and work my lab at 4AM for about 10 minutes before I went to work. Still walk with her every day at 4 and she gets some good exercise in fetching whatever she can find for me to throw.

As far as names go, pick something that means something to you but is short enough to use it in a "call name" for hunting and training...

My two cents.

Have fun with her!!!