New Positive Retriever Training Book!

I heard about this book only about two weeks ago.  I impatiently waited, and ordered it as soon as the website was up and running.   My book arrived!

The only drawback?   It’s written in French.   Lucky for me, I can read it well enough to get through…with the help of google translate.   “Puppy” “Training” “Ducks” and “Heartworm” are not words typically taught in French classes…..

Le Chien Rapporteur de A à Z comes with a DVD too!  Even though it recommends reading the book before/along with the video, I’m cheating and skipping ahead to watch.   The reading is super slow going (but getting faster the more I read and learn the dog vocabulary).

I’ll admit I’m biased towards liking it because the guy has goldens and so the photos and video are goldens!

A few quick things I’ve noticed:   Lots of praise and food use (sounds like dry biscuits or kibbles from the crunching!).  Lots of petting and affection (face licking frm the dog, patting on the top of the head and shoulders from the human).

The video shows things going well and moments where the dog doesn’t respond and working through those situations (replacing the dog in a stay, re-cueing the dog to go out, etc).  Much of the outdoor video is shown from two angles…which is nice

The biggest differences in our training (other than the big, and obvious, differences of his successes at different events and in hunting!) are that I don’t do as much luring and prompting and I get a higher fluency level before moving on.  Maybe I don’t need as much precision as I’ve been aiming for and maybe our nitpicking early on is holding us back?

I. Don’t. Really. Want. To.Hold. It. But. I. Will.

I can’t wait to get through the book and start utilizing the exercises.