My dog has HUGE drive and as a result, he is noisy on the line - which I can curtail - however, he even yelps as he's running out to the retrieve. When he was noisy on the line, I'd run a line on him and yank him back commanding, "quiet!" which worked. Now it seems as if he waits until he's far enough away to let out his excited yelps. I need to quiet him! Any tips would be appreciated.

I, too, have a noisy dog on the line. In the blinds he is whining and starts to shake. Sometimes when he is released for the bird he lets out a squeal. Believe me, until you've had a dog that is noisy, you have no idea how hard it is to train for them to be quiet. Our problem, in part, I'm sure is lake of exposure to blinds and birds. So, I used to do the same as you; using leash corrections and taps under the jaw. However, this was no fun for me and stressed my dog out, which I did not want to create that type of atmosphere before we ran.
I have now started a new approach. This may or may not work for you, but it has started to work for us. During training and testing, I get him out of the truck. When we start walking to the line, if he whines I say "quiet". If he is quiet, we keep walking to the line, if he whines, we turn around and go back to the truck. On the way back as soon as he is quiet, he gets a "good quiet" and we turn around and start to walk back to the line. I continue to do this until we can make it to the blind quietly and eventually to the line. While on line, if he squeals, he goes back to the truck. If he is quiet, he gets released to get the bird and that is his positive reinforcement. My dog does not bark or whine while he is on his way to the retrieve, so if he was doing that I would probably make him sit or call him back. I'm not sure if that will cause you more problems or not, but it's a suggestion. Since your dog has ALOT of drive, you'll probably not ruin it. If I am wrong, please respond!!
Expose him to blinds with gun shots and duck calls going on to desensitize him to those situations. You need to have those exciting situations to eventually train through. High exposure to birds/gunshots etc. will hopefully help too. If you keep his being quiet as a goal, stick to it. Noise is not tolerated and you will be marked heavily for it. In higher levels of competition, you will not qualify. Hopefully, your dog is still young and being noisy is not too ingrained in him.
This approach takes time and consistency. Just throw as many birds as you can, and reward heavily for quietness. Start with baby steps and then train with lots of commotion around. If you are trialing or testing, get him out of the truck early and let him see the blinds and hear the guns and calls and work from there. Although you are a team, you need to be the coach sometimes and enforce the rules. Good luck! Hopefully someone else will post with some good ideas.

Shelly

been in your shoes not fun day listening to a dog whine.What i did was take a squirt bottle or spay bottle full of water everytime he whined i squirted teh dog was 8yrs old till i found the trick that worked ,, but the old windex bottle with water in it worked after a few squirts to the face good luck it might work

Interested to hear this, as I'd come to the site to ask a question about this. Someone told me recently that in the States you don't mind whether your dogs squeak/whine in competition. Here in the UK, any kind of a noise is an eliminating fault in a field trial or working test. So the dogs in the US do get penalised for whining on the line then? But not disqualified from the test?

I have a simular problem with my dog. Its not that he whines going to the line or even sitting at the line. It is only on marks on the water. He will get 10 yards into the retrieve and then it starts. In hunting situations he sits on the front of the duck boat or lays beside me in the field and is very quiet and still, but on the first few birds of the day he will whine and yelp. This seems to stop throughout the day. I have no idea how to fix this, and would like to run in the Senior level of hunt tests but would surely be disqualified.

DeadGrass
Pro Staff:
SWAT Boats
St. Lawrence Outfitters Inc.
Mad Decoys

It has been my experience that most dogs that bark or whine en route to marks have high drive, this will help you. The most powerful tool is “NO HERE” and put the dog back in the truck or on a tie out stake. To allow your dog to retriever a bird after vocalization is just rewarding them (positive reinforcement) – not a good thing. They need to understand – Make a noise – No Bird! Stay quiet, they get to enjoy what they where bred to do. The use of the E collar usually complicates and confuses matters and dogs figure out very fast at competitions, no collar your standards have changed. A dog understands No Here with or without a collar. If it persists or you can’t keep a high standard, contact a good pro in your area, most will give you advice and insight.

Chris Stoddart
Hot Timber Retrievers

Chris
I train with Dave Beacock here in Brockville. We have met before at the hunt test in Toledo last year. Thanks for the info and maybe we'll run into each other this year. I will use the No Here, in the next training session, I can see it taking awhile since it has been going on since last season.

Derek Samson

DeadGrass
Pro Staff:
SWAT Boats
St. Lawrence Outfitters Inc.
Mad Decoys

Thats good. It shows ethusiasm and drive,nothing wrong with it . Why must we be in such control all the time. Just signal him somehow, hold hold hold .... go for it.