As you prepare for a duck dog, you will quickly find that there is a lot of conflicting information out there about how you should train your dog. Then when you see all of the opinions online, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed.

Josh Peck, CGA member and ambassador, was searching for the path to success when he got his beautiful lab, Kora. When he found CGA, he knew he had a simple path to success with the information to know where to start, what to do next, and what to do when problems arise. 

Kora is now a fantastic retriever. Like so many of our members, Josh got puppy number two, and he is now taking Nala through 52 Plus. 

Josh said, "One of my favorite things about Cornerstone is that it showed me how to take my dog from being a puppy to being a duck dog. The 52 Plus program does a great job of showing me how to train my dog because Josh is going through the same struggles and triumphs with his dog that I'm going through with mine."

Josh is confidently training two...

When you are training your retriever, you will inevitably face challenges.

Maybe you are there right now, and you're looking for how to get your dog over a hurdle. You were going along fantastically, and then, training has come to a halt.

Perhaps you are at the beginning of your training journey, and you are looking for training information you'll need in the future.

Either way, Louie, CGA member and ambassador, has some valuable insights for you. He and Red have amazing results with their training.

Red is the first dog Louie has ever trained, and they began when Red was only a puppy.

Now, Red can retrieve anything Louie sends him on. They have built a lasting bond. 

Louie took some time to share with you how they went from a new puppy and an owner who has never trained a retriever to an epic hunting duo.

"Build From Here"

"'Build From Here' is, simply put, learning/polishing what you already know and never giving up whenever you hit a wall. There's never a wall you can't...

CGA Member and Ambassador Scott Marquis excellently trained his incredible retriever, Lottie Mae. Together, they have gone through the sun, rain, and snow. She went from being a new pup to making an epic retrieve at Merrymeeting Bay with steadiness, drive, and a beautiful delivery. She's a dream retriever.

Are you wanting to train your dog to be an epic retriever like Scott has trained Lottie Mae? You may be wondering what you need to make that happen. 

After Scott's beloved dog passed away, he was searching for another dog. This time, he wanted to train the dog to be his hunting companion as well as his family's companion.

Scott, said, "I had always been kind of researching and following along with Barton Ramsay and Southern Oak Kennels. I knew I wanted a dog out of one of their litters and kind of simultaneously started scouring the web and trying to think, 'How am I going to do this? You know I don’t know anything about it. I'm not a dog trainer, I'm not a...

Training your Gundog has moments of glory and moments of challenge. Your dog has a mind of his own. Sometimes, it feels like you're on the same page. Other times, she's doing the exact opposite of what you hoped!

How can you build off of those highlights so that you can have more days like that?

#BuildFromHere

This is what Cornerstone Gundog Academy is all about.

You can take a success that you have in training and build on it in small increments until your dog is making an epic retrieve on the hunt. 

Practically, this could look like getting your puppy to sit on place for the first time today and having your pup repeat the behavior immediately tomorrow. 

It can look like pushing that blind retrieve from 50 yards to 60 yards today. Eventually, you've pushed it out to 300 yards and your dog is ready to retrieve anything you send her on.

In the video, CGA member and ambassador, Tom Forman, talks you through how he gets to days that he lives for. "Oh boy, this is...

Vickie has done an amazing job training her gundog, Claire. They have consistently worked together building trust and confidence in each other. If you want to see a stunning sight, watch Claire retrieve.

Vickie clearly articulates how you can also train an epic gundog. 

"CGA is known to have a saying that says 'BuildFromHere', 'Progress Over Perfection'. #BuildFromHere, I learned going through the process, is that you just follow the progress of the program. Don't rush. Don't be in a hurry. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the process. Build from where you are and continue to build on from there."

"Celebrate your wins that you have in training. Then learn from your dog if they're trying to tell you something that they don't understand. Back up, take your time, and just build from the very last step that they were successful on. You will be able to continue to advance your training after that."

One huge key to successful dog training is find your dog a win. Vickie understands that...

“I can trust him as much as he trusts me.” Nicholas and his amazing retriever, Winston, are inseparable. Their bond began on day 1. Nicholas feels like Winston really chose him. With this instant bond, Nicholas wanted the very best for his best friend.  

He feels like following our motto, "#BuildFromHere", has allowed him to develop the bond they share.

“BuildFromHere has meant everything to us in the process because Winston’s the first dog that I’ve ever trained. The Cornerstone program allows you to create that bond, that drive within him where he wants to do it.”

“BuildFromHere is fantastic… what’s so important about it is that when you focus on a specific attribute of training, you know that it will pay off later on.”

#BuildFromHere means that you build on the successes, make the most of failures, and focus on where you are heading together in the future.

“We embrace the fundamentals and the core...

Jake began training like many of our members, with no experience, and has now trained two epic retrievers, Sadie and Slate. With CGA, he learned both the methods for training and the why behind the methods. Using this knowledge, he feels empowered to make decisions in training to train beasts in the field that have an off switch. You can have this dog training confidence too. 

Today, he is showing you what your hunt preparation training sessions can look like with his two incredible gundogs.

"One of the great things about having multiple dogs and using Cornerstone to have those is you end up with happy, confident dogs." You can feel Slate's joy during training by watching his tail wag a million miles a minute. 

"One of the things I love about Cornerstone is the bond you build with your dog... You're creating a dog that wants to do the work, not a dog that is compelled to do the work." This is tangible as you see Slate and Sadie prepare for their hunts...

Is there a minimum age?

As you can imagine, anyone would answer this question, its different for every dog! Some hunting dogs mature much sooner than others, while some retrievers take a long time to mature. When it comes to a minimum age for hunting, there is no exact answer. The answer for each dog will come with a better understanding of their growth and maturity, retriever training experience, and the expectations of the first hunt. 

What Should My Dog Know Before We Go Hunting?

It is easier to know the exact skills that your dog needs to go duck hunting than it is to know the age at which he should go. We break these skills into two categories, obedience skills and gundog skills. Gundogs do not have to be "fully trained" in order to go hunting, but they do need to have some basic hunting skills.

For obedience skills, a retriever needs to sit and be steady, know how to place and heel, and have a solid recall. These skills need to be fluent for the dog. In other words, you...

My Dog's First Hunt Was Not The Experience I Was Hoping For

The first hunting dog I ever trained was an English Springer Spaniel named “Ruger”.  To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. A professional dog trainer had worked with Ruger on upland hunting, and I was trying to do the waterfowl training to the best of my very limited abilities.  I thought I had done a pretty good job by piecing together a few bits of knowledge from YouTube and what I had seen other people do.  I truly believed Ruger was ready to hunt waterfowl, but boy was I wrong. 

For our first hunt together, I decided to go with a waterfowl guide service in the Mississippi Delta. Ruger and I were paired with a few other guys and set out to hunt a flooded bean field that had held some mallards scouted the day before. Less than two minutes before shooting light, just as we were loading our guns, massive flocks of mallards began dropping into the hole. We were all...

Why Do I Need A Dog Food Storage Container?

A few years ago, I drove up to Michigan for an early season goose hunt. I put a bag of dog food in my truck for the trip, and I drove through a little rain on the way. I didn't think anything about it until later that evening when I picked up my bag of food to start feeding my dogs. The bag lifted with much more ease than usual, because the bottom of it busted out and all of the food spilled out into the bed of my truck, and the entire bag was ruined!

If you have a working dog, you probably have a hungry dog. Working dogs consume a good bit of food, and often times the owners of working dogs will feed the best dog foods, designed specifically to keep their hunting dog in shape. If you only have one or two dogs, a bag of dog food may last you well over a month. Whether you feed a bag a month or a bag every day, quality dog food is an expensive part of owning a gun dog.

Even though some the bags that quality dog food comes in may last a...