When to Start Training a Duck Dog

If you have a new puppy or plan to get a new puppy, and you want to train it to be a hunting dog, you are probably wondering...

"When should I start training my duck dog?"

That's a great question to be asking! Most people will tell you to start training your dog around six months old. While there is nothing wrong with this, if you wait until then to start training, you miss out on one of the best times to make great progress with your dog.

When To Start

The best time to start training your duck dog is at eight weeks old. This is contrary to popular belief, which says you should start training when your duck dog is in the 4-6 month-old range. Many people believe this because most gundog trainers won't take a dog in to train until it is six months old. However, if you wait to start training until then, you are missing out on three months that you could be molding your duck dog puppy into an excellent retriever.

The moment that you bring your duck dog puppy home, you have some of the most valuable training opportunities available to you. Having a dog is more than just having a hunting companion. A dog is a family companion as well. If you want to have a great duck dog that is a great family companion, it's best to start with the first chance you get. 

You won't start full bore into gundog training at seven weeks old, but you will start laying the foundation necessary to have a great hunting companion.

At this age, the goal is to start building a bond and socializing your pup early so that it can have many life experiences. As your pup matures, it will build a memory bank of life experiences that will help it be the confident and well-versed pup that it should be.

But...

There's more to it than just socializing. When your pup starts to feel at home, usually around one to two weeks after you bring it home, there is a golden opportunity available to you that most overlook or don't even realize that the opportunity is there. 

Let me tell you, this one opportunity is the chance to help bring out your dog's very best potential. Not only that but this one aspect of training can be tapped into in a way that makes training easier on you and more enjoyable for your dog throughout the whole process for years to come.

The Golden Opportunity 

What comes to mind when you think about training a duck-hunting dog?

Maybe you think about spending time in the field working with your dog, retrieving, or doing obedience. After all, we all know basic obedience comes first. 

Learning how to train your dog to be a duck dog involves all of the things that I've mentioned above, but it also goes deeper than that.

Think about this...

What if you knew what was going through your dog's mind as you were training it? That would be awesome, and even more than that, it would allow you to train your dog better because you would understand more.

This is where the golden opportunity comes in. You can better understand how your dog processes information, and it is not as hard as you may think. 

The golden opportunity is simply this: It's not about teaching your dog, but rather it's about teaching your dog how to learn.

If you can teach your dog how to learn, then anything you want to teach will be much easier to teach in the future because your dog will already be geared to think outside the box and will be aiming to please you. In other words, your dog is virtually training itself with your guidance. 

Here's how it works

Before you read any further, I would like to mention that our free preview for our 52 Plus course demonstrates the beginning stages of the process that I am about to mention below. I recommend reading below and signing up for the free preview so that you can best understand the beginning process of teaching your dog how to learn.

You can start the process of teaching your duck dog how to learn at any point in time, but the best time to start is after your dog has been in the home for a week or two. If you have or are getting an older dog, that is fine too, but the key is to start this process before any other training begins.

The first step is to get the tools that you need to do the job. All you will need for this part of the training is a placeboard, a clicker, and treats. We have a puppy training pack available in our gear store that includes the clicker and treat pouch, plus it comes with a training dummy as well.

The next step is to begin the process.

Once you develop an association between the clicker and the treat, you can immediately begin to see the learning take place. All you have to do is stand by the placeboard and do nothing. Stand silently and patiently until your pup touches the place board. When it does, you must click the moment that it touches the place board and then follow up with a treat to reward your dog.

As you repeatedly do this, you will start to notice in your pup's eyes that the light bulb is turning on, and you will notice that your pup realizes it has the power to turn reward on. If your pup wants to receive the reward, all your pup has to do is find a way to do what you want it to do. Once your pup realizes that, it is game on!

As your pup aims to receive rewards from you, you will notice that it is doing different things to get your attention. It may sit in front of you, jump on you, or do something else to try and please you so that you will reward it.

You can take advantage of this excitement by clicking or marking the dog's behavior only when it is doing what you want it to do. Once you mark a behavior, reinforce it with a treat so that your dog is more likely to do that behavior in the future.

Why This Works So Well & What It Can Mean For You

There's a little more to it than that, but basically, that is how you start the process of teaching your dog how to learn, or another way to look at it is that you are teaching your dog how to problem-solve on its own.

This works so well because it taps into your dog's innate instinct to survive. In the wild, a dog would learn to hunt its prey through a series of successful events that result in the dog getting a meal. If the dog fails, then it doesn't eat and has to start over and repeat the hunting process until it proves successful.

Tapping into your dog's natural drive through this process allows you to awaken its instincts to learn and problem-solve. In addition to that, because you are the one providing the reward, you will build a bond of trust between you and your dog, and it will always be eager to please you so that it will continue to get rewarded. 

This process makes all obedience training significantly smoother for both you and your dog. Plus, when you begin gundog skills training, the same foundations will transfer over nicely because your dog will continue to be "pre-programmed" to please you by finding out what you want it to do. 

This can ultimately result in a dog that is eager to please you, intently focused on you, confident, and driven in the field.

BuildFromHere,

Joshua Parvin

P.S. If you enjoyed reading this blog and would like to visually see the beginning stages of teaching your dog how to learn, you can click here, and it will take you to our 52 Plus Course page. From there, you can either buy now or try out the free preview to see if it is something that you would like to do.