Thread: training duck hunting pup

hey team

i’ve had a couple seasons duck shooting and have decided to pickup a purebred lab bitch to assist. looking for tips and tricks on how to train her to retrieve ducks once she’s a bit older as she’s only 11 weeks old at the moment

There will be lots of opinions but what I have found is you need to adjust to the dog and work it through the process. I've found that they will naturally want to do it so the main bit I work on is discipline. Making them sit and wait to be told to eat, sit and stay. If you start now with a couple of blocks of wood and bang them together to get them used to noise that helps on the gun shy part of things, it's a learning curve for both you and the dog but the rewards are massive especially when you go home with dry undies and a happy dog. I'm by no means an expert trainer but I do enjoy being dry over duck shooting

Expose the pup to loud noises when feeding and playing, bang bits of wood / pots and pans etc. to ensure pup isn't gun shy.
Get a couple of frozen duck wings and tape them to a bumper for fetch, little and often for the training.
The breed is natural for it, its discipline, manners and repeat training that make the difference
Watch a few of the retriever tips on YouTube from either Field Sports channel or Cornerstone gundog academy and then adapt to suit your needs

Good luck, the journey is great!

Try not to let it chase things. Especially the cat, sheep and any stray wildlife that comes into your section or that you bump into when out and about.

You only want it to hunt and retrieve on your terms. That gets harder to do once it learns that chasing shit is fun. (ask me how I know )

Maybe join join the waikato gundog club . I think it is only $20 yearly membership