hey all, been lurking about, posted a year ago concerning my pup, but have been pretty quiet ever after. my question: is ff a 2 yr old an advisable course?

i ask because i have finally gotten in with a training group tha is chock full of well-trained labs. most are 2/3 yrs old.

my needs are for hunting situation, not trialing. i have neither the time, $, nor, most importantly, the abilities for such training. but...these mutts are making my girl look the fool! they sit, stop, left, right, back, whoa- you name it. my girl goes like a bat out of hell, but often times overruns and then hunts far and wide irregardless of my "encouragement" to look elsewhere.

these guys, all very nice and supportive, roundly agree that it was/is a lack of forcing that is the root problem. i didn't do it, frankly, because i knew i was too much of a rank amateur.

anyone have any thoughts on the subject? i could use any help i can get.

We tried to force fetch our first Chessie (that was 12 dogs ago) and never did a complete job. After that, we have sent all our pups to a good pro for force fetching. Once they are forced, my husband takes over and teaches handling, drills, advanced work, etc. However, we train with a very nice guy who read all the books and after watching our dogs, went and force fetched both his Chessies - one was 4 and the other 3 at the time. Both went on to get Junior Hunters and can even handle a little. It can be done either by the amateur or a good pro.

Get SmartWork by Evan Graham, very easy to do once you read thought it.
The dvd fowldawgs1 by Rick Stawski shows how its done, The force fetch part of the dvd is the only part I like, thought he was kind of rough with his pups.

Sure, why not? My first trial dog was acquired for a pet and got almost no training until 21 months old. Prior to that I'd only had gun dogs. Then I decided that she was a retriever and ought to be taught to retrieve. And at 2 years of age I had a pro force fetch her. She turned into a helluva trial dog, a great hunter, and was still a marvelous pet. . . . However, she hated the pro to the day she died. Don't do it yourself, or you could wind up being the evil one in your dog's eyes (of course, a really good pro won't do it so he winds up hated, but that's another story).