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Bill's Philosophy Training A Young Retriever

Right from the beginning it’s important that you believe in your young retriever.

Make him know that you think he is the most spectacular retriever that there ever was. That will carry him through all of his life. That will give him courage. He will believe in you. He will trust you. And he will be your teammate if you are fair with him and you respect him. There is no room in this entire exercise for anything other than kindness for this young dog. He’s totally innocent. He wants to do everything. He just needs to be taught what it is that you want. It’s really important to start correctly and the beginning is the key. Try to develop as your goal to have each day just a little better than the day before. Eventually the dog will become brilliant. This is the truth about training. You know if your goal is to make each day just a little better the dog will get better. So one of the things we have to remember is that we are not going to accomplish everything in one moment. It’s small increments, based over a long period of time. The Japanese figured this out, the concept of Kaizen, which is constant and never-ending improvement. It’s getting better and better and better and finally you have companies like Honda and Toyota that are best in the world because they stuck with the principle of getting a little better, and a little better every day.

So that’s the plan for training, to make your young retriever a little better every day.

This young dog and all young dogs are innocent. They don’t know anything. They are how you make them. Another thing we will be working on and stressing is balance. You have to keep an eye on your dog, how it’s going. If he seems a little down, you have to bring him up. If he seems too UP you have to bring him down. You have to keep the balance. The cornerstone of this program is teaching and that is going to be started and based on developing what we call “The Game.” We use “The Game” first of all to teach focus. We use “The Game” to teach the Fetch command. We use it to teach “the Sit.” All these beginning things stem from “The Game” and it’s really important to get this straight. Many people through the years have watched me develop “The Game” and thought it was just playing around. “The Game” is extremely serious and important.

It's not playing, it’s not just getting the dog excited. It’s getting the dog to focus on what we want, which is: US! So as we progress we are going to delve into developing “The Game” and how it applies to teaching focus on us and teaching Fetch. The Sit and Here commands are all related to this beginning.

 I’ve had the privilege of working with many, many dogs, many puppys, many young dogs and study what it is that makes them want to do what you want . …

to want to be part of a team, to be compliant, to be what I call ‘balanced.’

I’m totally committed to having you get measurable results without conflict from this course. What will be required of you is to start in the beginning and go very slowly. Do not skip around because the order is very specific to achieve the end result you want. And remember – Repetition is the Mother of Skill.

Just because you’ve accomplished a lesson doesn’t mean that you are through with it . .. that’s when the practice begins.

 The very best to you and may God bless you and keep you,
Bill Hillmann