From T. Kylor of Nebraska :  I just got an 8 week old chocolate lab and I don’t know when I need to start training it.

From C. Baugh of Lafayette , Indiana :  My retriever, Trigger, is nine months old.  At what age can you start field training a dog?

From D. Beck of Lindsay, Oklahoma :  I have a black labrador retriever about one year old.  Is there an age limit at which it is too difficult and not productive to train a dog?

From M. Sabeh of Beirut , Lebanon :  I would like to know at what age it can be possible to train my dog?

Answer:

As you can see, this is truly a universal question and one that is frequently asked.  The adage that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is not true.  What is hard to do is to break a dog of formed habits.  Once an animal has been conditioned to a behavior, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the animal will revert back to that behavior given the opportunity either through timing or place.  The only option that one has with a dog that has already formed an undesirable habit is to teach it a new replacement behavior.   The trainer’s job is to teach the animal the right way to do his work to begin with.  Then you don’t have any holes to fill later on.

Training is easier starting with a pup because the pup doesn’t know anything, except what you teach him.  However, it is not imperative to start with a young pup.  What is more important to understand is that whether a dog is eight weeks or eight years old, you need to start at the beginning.  An animal that has not been exposed to the work you intend him to do, i.e. work involving swimming, birds, training bumpers, gunfire, boats, decoys, etc., has not yet been brought into the classroom.  This is the first order of business. 

The logical approach to the successful training of an animal of any age always involves teaching the animal exacting responses in a sequence of subtasked events.  This method works because of the way a dog’s brain operates.  Dogs can’t think – they can only remember.  This is hard for the layman to understand, but is supremely important.  A dog does not “know” anything unless it has experienced it.  Therefore, presenting information to the animal in a subtasked format of chained events facilitates learning. 

The trainer’s approach to the dog’s lessons is also important.  The essence of being a good teacher or boss is the ability to get your student or employee to like his work.  Ideally, a good hunting retriever is “hardwired” with a high level of desire to retrieve.  The successful trainer is one who is able to manipulate the animal into responding to working words because he’ll let it fetch.  This kind of approach creates a student that has a willingness to learn the material presented and has a positive outlook towards its work.

Now we will address the concept of training.  Once you have taught a dog what you want him to do, you can then train him to do it.  In the process of training, you are utilizing points of contact, timing, and repetition over learned behaviors to create operate conditioning.  Trained behavior is the result of operate conditioning. 

Want to have your training question answered?  Just email me at beth_ann@womenhunters.com.  I’ll select the most commonly asked questions and answer them here on this page.  Check back often to see you and your fellow hunting retriever enthusiasts’ questions!