re: Duck Dog

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, I don't speak French.

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It ain't hard, just practice, over and over...

"Fetch dem dam ducks, meaux feaux"!

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he's gonna be smarter than me.

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Yeah mine is smarter than me too. I used to get pissed when she'd break from
a command, I've learned to give a second to let her do her thing. More like than once I've gone, damn that makes sense.

Whether you get your lab trained or train it yourself.....

Read the book Water Dog by Richard Wolters. This will help you train, maintain, and/or understand your lab 100 times better.

I have had 3 labs in my life. My current lab has a hunt drive unlike I've seen before. She is a gamer. My previous labs loved to please and were trainable, but I had no idea what superior 'HUNT' traits can do for a dog.

Do your homework.

I prefer a mixed lab of 1/2 to 3/4 American Lab and 1/2 or 1/4 British Lab.

I find 100% British labs get fat and lazy too easily. No offense meant to british lab enthusiasts. And.. 100% American labs can be high strung.

Good luck

I'll definitely pick up the book. Where do you find labs that are mixed like that? Any in Louisiana?

If you don't mind me asking, how much are you paying for you pup and training?

Warning - I'll probably get crucified by the board for the following...


He was $2k...I get blood line back 5 generations all of them to England and Scotland.

You take him home at 7 weeks and they go back for gundog at 7 months.

From there they can be at Wildrose anywhere from 4-7 months at $700/month.

It's not cheap, but when you go on the tour and they bring a 6 month old dog into the bird pen with 100 ducks, pheasants, quail and pigeons and he sits on place while the birds fly all around him and doesn't flinch, and then walks off-lead heal not flinching it's pretty impressive. Not one bit of it with a shock collar or force fetched.


I debated sending him back for gundog school. But in the end I would have been doing him a disservice not sending him to get finished.

Here's his poppa, Deke. Good luck with your decision.




My dad went with me to drop him off for gundog and ended up putting a deposit down for a female from Deke.

Yea there's a lot to think about, which is why I'm not getting one any time soon. Worse case scenario is I go cheap and then it turns into a straight family pet and I don't have a hunting dog

Oh I'm aware that expensive dogs can flop. MY uncles BIL got a very expensive pup, and he couldn't stay in the blind. He would just dart off into the water and then come back and run around the blind. Another uncle has a cheap lab that's amazingly calm and does well. Most people that I have hunted with spend around $2k on pup and train and do fine. Will definitely talk to them when I get closer to making a decision. Just trying to see what the OB's experiences were.

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OFA on hips and elbows.. and eyes

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Appreciate that info.

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So my wife asked me the other day if I would like to get a lab for hunting and to keep outside so our husky can have a friend.

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Are you planning to keep this dog just loose in your yard? I've seen bad results with that kind of situation. I'm not saying it can't work, but it will take some constant training and attention to train it to understand the difference between being able to run around in a yard and then sitting still in a blind.