to old to train??

[meat eater]

i have just been offered a 3yr old female lab the owner say's that the dog is great with kid's and loves to play fetch and frisbee. i am just wondering if this is still an alright age to start training her for duck an goose hunting.Any input would be greatly appreciated!! thank's!!

[Kasomor]

i have just been offered a 3yr old female lab the owner say's that the dog is great with kid's and loves to play fetch and frisbee. i am just wondering if this is still an alright age to start training her for duck an goose hunting.Any input would be greatly appreciated!! thank's!!

How's her obedience? Does she come when called? "Sit and stay" when told too?
How important is duck hunting to you? Would you keep the dog if she does not pan out in the hunting department??

Then ask how much time and effort you want to put into training and what your expectations are?

The dog may be crazy about ducks from the get go but you won't know that until you try having her retrieve one. Take a duck, tease her with it, give it a little toss and see what she does. If she picks it up and brings it back to you...GREAT! If she does not depending on what her attitude is, you could have a battle on your hands...or not. :mrgreen:

Then you have to answer the above questions.

AND,please, what ever you do decide ...don't be shooting over her to "see if she is gun shy!!" Introduce gun fire in a positive manner.

Good luck!

[meat eater]

it sounds like she listens fairly good. i think the problem they arte having with her is she isn't horse smart and they spend alot of time in the woods on horses.what do u suggest as a good way to introduce gun fire? i'm sure there is a thousand different opinions on this one!

[Kasomor]

Check out this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc8iO8iemLw

basically you get the dog crazy about retrieving, which takes as much time as it takes...days, weeks or months.... and then start associating the retrieve with the shot.

In the video you can see they move the gun up on the pup in less then 2 minutes. Chances are while that pup has not been shot over until the video was made he has been hearing shot from a distance for sometime while being in the dog truck and/ or kennel.

Expect to take weeks, if not months, to get to the same level of understanding with an adult dog who has no experince with this.

Sounds like you have not met the dog. If I was looking to buy a three year old with no hunting experience I'd want to meet the dog, see how she is on birds, and see what her obedience is like before I agreed to take her.

Sometimes the best things in life are NOT free :mrgreen:

[Foxton Gundogs]

AND.... make sure you gunbreak the dog carefully as if it were a young pup. Makesure ther is no "gunshyness" already.

[Kasomor]

AND.... make sure you gunbreak the dog carefully as if it were a young pup. Makesure ther is no "gunshyness" already.

Yup that is the crux of the matter. How do you (the generic YOU) see if a dog is gunshy all ready? Shoot over it and see how she reacts? Take the dog to the range and see what she does??? I would not do either. By doing so YOU can create a gunshy dog right there.

If the dog is not noise sensative and has never experinenced gun fire, I would have no reason to suspect she is gun shy

[Foxton Gundogs]

I tOTALY agree with you re the range or shooting right over it. I start off with a shotgun primer pistol at a good distance and work closer with someone to shoot while I watch the reaction. Then employ the puppy method(blanks at a distance, at feeding time or while the dog is otherwise having fun retrieving etc). if the dog shows no adverse reaction I move closer and eventualy graduate to a shotgun at a distance.Pups in our litters think of a gunshot as a dinner bell by the time they ar ready for their new homes. Interestingly I had a lab once that was scared of thunder and the sound of trains working in the switch yards but went crazy(in a good way) when you picked up a shotgun guess every case is diffrent. but as you say if they dont show sensitivity to noise its a good indicator in my mind

[bopper]

It's never "too old" to train a dog, provided the dog has these attributes: Intelligence, Desire and Attitude. I know of a Lab that had no formal training by three years of age, and then, with a new owner, went on to win the Canadian National Retriever Championship. (CNFTCH Stormy Of Spirit Lake Gal).