Richard Wolters training books

[Liberty or death Jr.]

For those who have used the DVDs, what do I get? Do I get water dog and gun dog, game dog, or just waterdog?

My pup is a lab/weimaramer mix so he might be a pointing dog, but he could be a flushing dog too. I want to train him to be a great waterfowl dog, and if he has the pointer in him, a pointing dog, if he doesn't have the pointing, I want to train him flushing.

[TMAC]

I read and used game dog. From what I can remember the book suggested covering obedience first, then water training and lastly upland bird hunting. I believe Game dog is kind of a combination of training forms, so it may be a good place to start. Either get the book or the DVD, which ever you prefer.

Relax on all the specialized and advanced training at first and concentrate on the basics of obedience, without the basics you cant do anything. Believe what he says because I know it works, and dont get too hung up if your pup isnt moving along at the same pace as his in the book.

Be patient and good luck.

[Liberty or death Jr.]

So it does cover basic obedience? My uncle is coming to pick up his pup and he is going to show me the basics and give me a really good book on dog training. Does game dog cover pointing for upland or is it for like training a lab to flush? Thanks

[69beers]

Game Dog is for upland retrievers, which means a flushing/retrieving dog. It does not cover pointing. He bases everything on puppy obedience without using any force methods (e-collars or force fetching) since the e-collars at that time were pretty crude. What he doesn't cover is what to do if his methods don't work, whereas more modern systems do. You may also want to consider The Pointing Labrador by Knutson to help you with developing his pointing skills. You may not have a purebred pointing lab on paper, but functionally it might be close.

Something to note is that Wolters was not a professional trainer, but he was a professional author. Many have had spectacular results using his books, but many haven't. I had good results with his method at first, but that seems to plateaued. If this keeps up I'll be going with the Smartwork system and en e-collar, which was not my original plan.

[Liberty or death Jr.]

I'm really not a fan of e-collars, and I would rather not use them, but we'll see what my uncle has to say, he is a great dog trainer.

[mudslapper]

I would go with the 10 minute retriever book if you want a good hunting dog. I rather it more than some of the other books because it doesnt seem to put as much "high pressure" training on the dog.

[laidback]

I also use "The 10 Minute Retriever". It pretty much covers everything and is easy to follow. I also have the DVD "Water Dogs".