So you have finally taken the plunge and bought yourself a Murrar river retriever for duck hunting and other forms of hunting,congratulations; l highly doubt you will be dissapointed. Duck hunting and Murray River retrievers have weathered the test of time and have been inseparable for generations of duck hunters and will continue to do so.
The Murray River Retriever is a very intelligent dog and relatively easy to train. If I was asked what l considered the most important stage of training a dog l would say without hesitation, obedience, for without it all you have is an uncontrollable dog, which is a danger, especially when out hunting. I have found a pup with a hunting bloodline seems easier to train than one coming from a showdog bloodline and when I have bought a pup I try to make sure it comes from a hunting sire amd dam if possible. Simple tasks like sitting, coming when called, sitting on command can be started as soon as your puppy has gotten used to its new surroundings but remember to keep its lessons short, no longer than 10 minutes at a time. These lessons can, of course, be held a few times a day. One step that is handy to implement from the moment you start training is to incorporate a simple hand movement with each instruction. In case you are wondering why hand instructions are important the answer is your voice can carry a long way when out hunting especially when hunting over water, thus alerting game to your presence. If hand instructions are incroporated with verbal commands you will find after a period of time your dog will work just to your hand commands. Another important thing to remember is not to carry on a long conversation with your dog while giving it a task, to put it simply your dog doesn’t understand english, so keep its instructions short with one word only and when issuing an instruction always use the same word, do not change it back and forth, you will only confuse the dog.
Next week we will cover some of the easier puppy instructions for those of you who have just acquired a pup.