Ron With Sam, His New Labrador Retriever, We are filming Ron Teach Sam each week, If you want more Infomation on teaching your gundog following ron weekly click the picture.

One common question that I have been asked is “How much time do I need to put into training my gundog?” The answer that I usually give is “As much time as you need to.” That isn’t to say that gundog training needs to be overly complicated and in many cases it can be surprisingly easy, but it is to say that every dog is different.

Remember, with gundog training you are working with the dog’s natural instincts. If the dog has strong instincts then chances are he is going to take to training much easier and if he doesn’t, then the training will be much harder. Case in point, Ron has trained two Labrador Retrievers recently, both of them from hunting lines, both pure bred and assumed to be natural retrievers.

The first Labrador Retriever, a black Lab, was able to do blind retriever by nine months of age and could mark on moving water from the first day of training. His natural retrieving instincts were very strong and he was made for the task. The other Labrador Retriever, on the other hand, struggled through training and the trainer had to teach the dog how to retrieve, which was a long and involved process that is not easy. But after 15 months they were at roughly the same stage.

Both dogs, although the same breed and trainable, required a different amount of time to be trained to be hunting dogs. That being said, the idea for any trainer and owner is to have a dog that has a large store of natural instinct that can be shaped easily for the field. The reality is usually a dog that falls in the middle between easy to train to field and almost impossible. For this reason, it is important to really know your dog, and you can learn more about that in our article “Getting to know your Gundog Puppy.”

Regardless of how much natural instinct your dog has, you can expect to be training on a daily basis, although it doesn’t have to be for a significant amount of time. Generally, 10 minute sessions about twice a day is all you need to train a puppy into being an exceptional gundog. In fact, a lot of success occurs if you keep your training sessions down to shorter periods so the dog does not become bored during the training session.

Although you will be spending more time training your dog when he is young, it is important to continue to train your gundog throughout his career as a field dog. He may be trained extremely well by 18 months but if he is not exercised and trained on a regular basis, you may find that your gundog quickly becomes headstrong in the field.

So to recap, train your dog 10 to 15 minutes, twice a day to ensure that your dog learns and maintains his training throughout his gundog career.

If you want to follow Ron training Sam with Weekly Videos, they should be ready before June so sign up Gundog Weekly Training here and I will send you 4 free pre training videos.