A comprehensive guide to transforming your dog into a valuable wing-shooting companion in the field and at home. Created by Mike Stewart of Wildrose Kennels, the Wildrose Way is a unique, low-force, positive training method that is field-proven for upland and waterfowl gundogs. The training prepares dogs for versatility—any game, any terrain, any destination—and makes them desirable companions for any situation. Now, for the first time, Stewart’s methods are compiled in one indispensable reference book, fully illustrated with photographs and diagrams. Containing chapters on establishing essential behaviors, the core skills of the hunting retriever, and waterdog finishing work, as well as sidebars on such topics as breed selection and effective canine leadership, this step-by-step book is designed specifically for wing-shooters who want to transform their pup into a gentleman’s gundog.

Hunting Success Begins Here! In Tom Dokken's Retriever Training, America's leading trainer helps you channel your hunting dog's huge ambition so he works for you, the way you want, and does so happily.After using the time-tested methods in Tom Dokken's Retriever Training, you'll have a reliable retriever that: • Obeys commands on- and off-leash • Retrieves birds to hand • Remains steady to shot • Quarters and flushes upland game • Finds downed birds • Takes hand signals

Insights into the world of dog shows and showing dogs from a complete beginner who now proudly calls herself a "Dog Show Junkie." Revealing, humorous and realistic, this may turn you into a junkie too!

Robert Milner has been training dogs professionally for more than thirty years. Over that stretch he has trained about 1,500 retrievers for hunting and field trials, drug and explosive detection, and even search-and-rescue operations. He taught obedience classes at the University of Memphis for ten years, and has judged retriever trials in both the U.S. and in England. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee, with his wife, Susan, and yellow Lab, Jake.

"Traditional gundog training is based on compulsion and rooted in a picture of the dogy's nature as similar to a wolf with much emphasis on dominance and sub ordinance. Milner turns that theory upside down citing research which finds that wolf packs operate in cooperative family groups with minimal factors of dominance. Dogs, Milner believes, learn much faster with a cooperative training model. Milner has chucked compulsion and embraced reward as the primary training tool. He gives the reader a simple, reasonable easy-to-perform training model. His extensive practical experience leads him to condense gundog training down to a few critical behaviors. Milner gives the reader clear concise instructions producing those behaviors to develop an excellent gundog who excels also as a family dog. This is a book on how to manage the strong instincts of retrievers and influence them to work for you and with you to produce a valuable companion that enhances your outdoors experience, be it hunting ducks, or fishing for trout, or hiking in the back country."--Page [4] cover.

Many hunters consider their retrievers to be "polished" if the dog sits, stays, retrieves marked singles and won't run off. However, retrievers of every breed have so much potential. This book condenses Tom's 40-plus years of dog training into a concise, easy-to-follow guide that helps you unlock the magic within your retriever. Working at your own pace, and with vivid visual instructions, you'll learn how to teach your dog honoring, multiple marked retrieves, blind retrieves over land and water, and much more. Arguable America's best-known retriever trainer, Tom as four-plus decades of experience turning retrievers into successful hunt-test competitors, field-trail participants and great hunting companions. He operates Dokken's Oak Ridge Kennels in Northfield, Minn., which is also one of the country's largest all-breed hunting dog training facilities. He also creates the popular Dokken's Dreadfowl Trainer dummy, which is designed to teach dogs the proper hold on game birds.

Outlines 10-minute daily training sessions tailored specifically to a retriever's attention span, counseling beginner-level owners on such topics as force fetching, field tests and the humane use of electric collars, in a volume complemented by true stories and breed-specific adaptations.