The boards opinion on hunting dog training books?

The book:
Water Dog

Endo story

Hope you have lots of patience and time

Most people in retriever circles look down on Water Dog and think it’s outdated. If you are starting with a puppy and don’t have much experience would recommend you find a puppy dvd like Smart Beginnings and then switch over and folllow step by step with a proven training program such as Mike Lardy, Evan Graham, or I used Rick Stawski’s Fowl Dawg DVD’s. For $40 or so you can buy Fowl Dawgs 1 & 2 and that will keep you busy for a long time and give you a solid dog if you follow it to the tee.

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The book:
Water Dog

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The classic and definitive text.

water dog is excellent and is no it is by no means out dated. what water dog isn't good at is problem solving.....other than that many a fine dawg were trained with RW's books...


one thing I would suggest is learning how to handle a gun dog.. go to a hunt test or a training day and pay attention to the guys that don't need to scream at their dogs or shock them constantly on hunts...

I'm biased though, that's my dog's pops on the cover.....

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Rick Stawski’s Fowl Dawg DVD’s

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The Fowl Dawg's DVDs are great if you like visual learning. Bill Hillman's DVD is also good, but I find his method to be very unique and hard to adapt to your own style.

I always recommend two books to people looking to learn how to train: (1) 10 Minute Retriever by the Dahls, and (2) Finished Dog by Charlie Jurney. The latter is catered more towards dog games, but it has some good troubleshooting methods for advanced training. The Dahls also published a follow-up to 10 Minute Retriever called Retriever Troubleshooting. I don't own it, but have skimmed through it and it seems to be useful.

Sound Beginnings (assuming that's what you were talking about) was produced by my dog's breeder. She is a very good trainer and the most accomplished golden breeder in the country. It's a great DVD for basic puppy stuff. I'm not a huge fan of treat training, but who am I to tell her she's doing it wrong . I think you'd be fine starting off with that and then switching to a combination of the Stawski DVD's and a book of your choosing. There is no one-size-fits-all for retriever training, and you will have to adapt your training program to your dog based on its progress/attitude/etc. Be patient and consistent and you will be fine.

I disagree that Water Dog is "outdated." There are better trouble-shooting books out there, but it's important to remember that a lot of retriever training philosophies were built on Wolters' words.

Mine doesn’t mind doves, but you’re not the first person I’ve heard say that. It may have something to do with the feathers. Dove feathers are much more downy and chalky than duck feathers. It’s a bad idea to introduce dogs to birds with doves because of that.

Any of Richard Wolter's books are a great addition to a library. Retriever training is not rocket science, but Mr. Wolters was a rocket scientist.
I had the honor to do a seminar with him at an outdoor sportsman’s show. He was the lecturer and my dog and I did the demonstrations.
Getting to pick his brain for a couple of days was very insightful. He explained that his books were not the be all, end all to retriever training, but rather a primer based on utilizing animal behavioral science to accomplish some of the goals needed develop a working gun dog.
Many other good books exist on the subject, but his are good ones.
Steer clear of James lamb free for anything more than historical reference.