Water Dog

July 10th, 2013: We've been learning more and more about field training. There are so many things you can train your dog to do and if they have the drive, they really can do it all. From flyball to agility to field trials, they can do it! I've been re-reading the book "Water Dog" by Richard Wolters and I thoroughly recommend the whole series to anyone getting a dog, whether their dog be a hunting dog or just a house pet. Wolters offers a lot of techniques and "opinions" that I would never have thought of on my own.

I'm no PRO but I am learning and that is what counts. My last Toller was skilled on retrieves, the shotgun sound, stays, drop-it, leave-it, among many other things but I did not introduce her to feathers early enough. Wolters stresses that the most important time to train your dog and build a bond is between 7 and 16 weeks. The *real* training starts after 16 weeks but there are lots of important little things to train your dog to do, before 16 weeks approaches. Saying that, my almost-9-year-old Toller has suddenly grown fond of feathers since she now has 'competition'. I'm amazed by this 9 year old.

Here is a picture of one of our first training sessions with feathers with our newest Toller, Eau-din (pronounced Odin). He will need to be trained with brushes as he does not have the softest mouth for a retriever but for a young pup, he is keen, and that is a good start!