10 steps to prepare your retriever for the hunting season

With record heats recorded this past summer, it was hard to find a place to train our dogs for retrieving.
Beaver dams, ponds, lakes and even the river water temperature was above normal for the summertime.
Now that the fall season is upon us and the cooler weather is on its way, its time to get our faithful companions some much-needed exercise.
Just like any athlete, warm-up drills are the order of the day. I like the early morning and late evening hours the best, this will be the cooler temperatures of the day. Even at age 7, Chilli needs some reinforcement drills when it comes to retrieving from the duck blind.
Having a steady-to-shot retriever in the duck blind is an awesome sight.
Though some might think it’s easy for those duck dogs to sit and patiently wait for their master to do his or her job, many hours and many miles were covered by the owner working with his dog in the first two years to be the fine hunting companion that he/she is.
Now is not the time to just take your pup to the woods or water and expect these beautiful and faithful friends to perform magnificently. During the offseason, our dogs don’t necessarily forget how to do their job, but they do tend to bend the rules of obedience.
And I must admit, I am not nearly as consistent with my training and enforcing the rules in the offseason.
Here are a few very important “golden nuggets” to remember when helping your dog prepare for his/her favorite time of the year.
1. Don’t rush it. Begin training with some simple short distance retrieves. Inch by inch, it’s a cinch, yard by yard it’s very hard.
2. Start off on the right foot or left foot. Make sure your pup is being obedient right out of the vehicle.
3. Keep them steady to shot. If you already invested the time in training your pup to be steady, don’t let it reverse now.
4. Praise them. Dogs, just like people, love praise. Show them you are happy with them — believe me they know your feelings.
5. Give them plenty of access to water. There is a lot of hair on that dog, and they cannot sweat to cool themselves.
6. Set the stage. Start with retrieving bumpers, etc., before moving onto more lifelike birds.
7. Never give a command you can’t enforce. What we allow we teach!
8. Try new places. Give them new places to go to and new experiences to enjoy. Your pup will thank you for it.
9. Train yourself. Play the movie ahead, set your intentions before you begin the training.
10. Have fun. Make it fun for your pup, throw a couple of fun bumpers afterwards and let them do whatever they want.
What an awesome time of the year is the fall season. Cool breezes rustling the orange, red and yellow leaves. Each crisp morning has a touch of fog misting from the Valley floor.
Walnuts hitting the ground with a thud make you want to watch the sky for more overhead objects. My favorite distraction is the sound of acorns hitting the creek with a loud splunk.