Things You'll Need:
- Pealess whistle
- Training pistol
- Orange bumper
- Black and white bumper
- Flying discs
- Throw toys
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Step 1
Master basic obedience training with your retriever before you attempt to work with the dog on hunting skills. The dog must learn to sit, stay and heel before it can effectively train with other tools.
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Step 2
Purchase a whistle to use with your hunting dog. Choose a whistle that sounds without a whistle pea, as peas can freeze in winter conditions, rendering the whistle useless.
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Step 3
Consider buying a training pistol to use in conjunction with the bumper or training dummy. This helps the dog learn to associate the noise of the hunting rifle with the retrieving action.
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Step 4
Use an orange bumper to practice blind retrieves with your dog. Although the color appears vivid to you, the dog perceives the orange as the same shade of gray as the grass.
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Step 5
Buy a black and white speckled bumper for dogs that must retrieve by sight. Dogs require stark color variations in order to find a bumper by sight.
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Step 6
Throw a flying disc that has a bone or other raised imprint on its face. Flat discs are difficult for dogs to pick up, but the imprint allows the dog to fetch and retrieve the disc easily.
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Step 7
Include bumpers designated for fun at the end of each training session. Bumpers fashioned from rubber in odd shapes bounce erratically, which has enormous appeal for retrieving dogs.
