RETRIEVERS
REIBAR’S FOUR MONTH TRAINING PROGRAM FOR RETRIEVERS

It takes us four months to give our clients a gun dog that is trained to the level that meets our high standards here at Reibar Kennels.
During this four-month period, your dog will be educated on obedience and hunting commands, he will also be introduced to as many
hunting scenarios as he can handle. Working on the idea that all dogs are individuals, each dog is taken through the program at his
own pace. To ensure that our dogs in training are given the opportunity to become the best they can be, we shoot a variety of live
birds for each dog during their stay with us. The type of hunting a client has in mind for his dog will determine whether a dog receives
ducks, pheasants, or chukkars as his primary fowl---- or a combination of these birds. To keep training costs down we shoot pigeons
on a daily basis. We believe that dogs are best educated when given hunting situations that resemble as closely as possible the
scenarios that a hunter and dog would encounter in a day afield.

If a dog has not been introduced to birds, upon his arrival for training, we first get that done so we have a gauge as to the character
and potential talent of the new trainee. With that information we can outline a training program that will best suit the dog during his
four-month stay with us.  Once a dog’s natural desire to get the bird and his hunting instincts have surfaced we begin a more
demanding and intensive obedience course using the leash and heeling stick to solidify all known commands. If the dog is capable of
handling more training during this time we also begin the force fetch, (pick-up on command) but not until he is ready.  Once the dog is
force fetched the next step is to teach the come-on-command drill. This drill teaches the dog to come on both verbal and whistle
commands. The final discipline learned by your dog in his four month stay with us is to become steady to shot.

The four month course described above is for the retriever breeds we train, as most retrievers are used for duck hunting they are
also schooled on hunting over decoys and become accustomed to a duck call during their daily field drills. More and more hunters are
using their retrievers to flush game; teaching retrievers to flush is not a difficult process, all it takes is an added month of training
when the basic course is completed. If a client chooses to use his retriever for upland game only, (flushing birds) the steadiness part
of his training is eliminated and we can usually complete the dogs training in the before mentioned four months.
All dogs must be given the time to get comfortable with and accept all of their newly learned knowledge, so the remainder of their
time here will be spent allowing them to obediently perform all the newly learned hunting skills in the field. If we feel a dog is
capable of learning more during his stay with us, we will gladly teach him some of the more advanced skills that will be helpful in
making this dog an even more productive hunter.

If we do not feel that a dog is capable of accomplishing every aspect of the basic training mentioned above, after working with him
for one month, we would call the owner and discuss what we feel the dog is capable of achieving. If this lower level is not acceptable
to the owner, the dog will be sent home.

We welcome and recommend that all owner’s of dog’s we have in training come out as often as they possibly can in order to learn
how to handle and take advantage of the training we have put into their dog. It’s important that we make the transition form trainer
to owner go as smoothly as possible. We take pride in the schooling of all the owners of the dogs we train, because they are the
secret to our dogs being successful.
REIBAR- EXCELLENCE IN DOG TRAINING