Dynamic Retrievers offers a very thorough and balanced program for young field trial dogs including solid basics, transition, and early advanced training. Marking mechanics and precision while keeping a great attitude is important to us. Helping owners with training and handling skills is a part of the dog’s time here as well. We work well with numerous other professionals who handle dogs in the derby, qualifying, and all-age stakes. Tim Springer and Dynamic Retrievers no longer offers field trial handling as a service to clients. Instead, we dedicate the travel time and time at trials to the proper development of these talented young dogs.
Services
Young dog development for those wanting a well-trained hunting dog and family companion has been and continues to be an important part of the training going on at Dynamic Retrievers. We ourselves are hunters and understand the importance of having a well behaved yet stylish retriever afield. We generally take in young dogs at around 6 months of age, and like owners to commit to a minimum of three months of training. This allows us to take the time and do things right, without unnecessarily rushing or pushing a dog too much. Solid basics, although not very exciting, are very important to a young hunting dog’s entire career. Your dog will learn obedience, formal hold and fetch training, bird and gun training, water and land marks, upland hunting, and exposure to decoys and other hunting scenarios.
For those wanting a finished waterfowl dog, it is highly recommended to continue training to include hand signal and blind retrieve training. This is often 2-4 months more of training, depending on the natural skill level of the dog and the amount of training desired.
We at Dynamic Retrievers are proud of our success with a wide variety of temperaments and breeds in the hunt test game. Owners typically bring us their pups at around 6 months of age. At that time the youngsters learn the formalized hold and fetch com
mands, obedience and e-collar conditioning , and good marking mechanics utilizing birds. As things progress the training transitions into dogs learning blind retrieves as well as multiple marks.
The three levels of the AKC Hunt Test program are Junior, Senior, and Master. The Junior Hunter(JH) title requires4 junior passes. Junior tests incorporate four single marks, two on water and two on land. The Senior Hunter (SH) title is awarded to dogs with a JH title plus f our Senior passes, or 5 Senior passes. Senior tests include 2 sets of double marks, onep and an land and one water, with a blind retrieve in each off to the side of the marks. There is also a walk-uhonor in the Senior. Master Hunters (MH) have 6 Master passes or a SH title plus 5 Master passes. Master tests are 3 series of multiple marks of which two must be triples, and 3 blinds retrieves of which at least one must be within the marks. MNH stands for Master National Hunter and is a title given to dogs who have passed the Master National 3 times.
Dogs must qualify for this once a year event.
Although we encourage owners to run their own dogs, many people do not have the time or desire to spend their weekends at a test. Handling services are offered by Lauren Springer, one of the top ranked professionals in the AKC Hunt Test program with a very high pass rate.
Tim Springer Seminar
The Tim Springer seminar:
“What the Books Don’t Tell You” covers important topics for training your retriever such as understanding your dog’s perspective, their mental state, and unlocking the mystery of molding a balanced retriever. You will also better understand how your dog responds to pressure in the context of training.
Information gathered in this seminar is very complimentary to other successful retriever training programs, and will help ‘fill in the gaps,’ so to speak.