Speed Train Your Own Bird Dog: Hunting Dogs Expert Teaches You His Completely Reliable Program

by Larry Mueller

Book Overview

Humane training methods written in a step-by-step approach help produce a superior bird dog in minimum time. The speed-train system also makes the process enjoyable for the dog as well as the master.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811723046
• ISBN13: 9780811723046
• Release Date: April 1990
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

great book, easy and fun to read

I have baught the different DVD's on how to train your dog, and they where all right I know I can follow those DVD's and get a good dog, but after reading this book I am excited to train my new Puppy and know I will have a great dog. If you are like me and buying your first puppie get this book it will make life a lot easier. Thank You,

Speed Train Your Bird Dog

This book has the best method of how to pick a puppy and how important it is to start training immedieatly. I got my English Pointer pup at 7 weeks of age and wish I had this book at this time. I had a CD with 4 volumes (Actually only one CD with slick marketing making you think that you were getting more than you were really getting.) Unfortunately, I did not discover this book until my dog was 14 months old. As I read this book I realized how lucky I was to have inadvertaintly done most of the things that was recommended in this book starting with visiting the pups over a several day period and manged to pick a pup with all the attributes that Larry recommends with the exception that my pup had a tendency to put his paw on top of all the other pups. This according to Larry, means that the pup was the dominate pup. However, if you follow Larry's advise you will have a dog that is smart, not too dominate or submissive, is birdy and has the instinct to retrieve and point. with dumb luck, I got all of that in my dog. What I did not do was get him onto birds between 2 and 4 months of age which Larry insists is critical to developing the dogs desire to hunt. I can see some of that in my dog. I did start obideance training at that young age and that has made a difference. One thing that set Larry's book apart from others is that his training techniques do not rely on hundreds of dollars of training equipment and is designed for both those who are in a rural as well in a suburban setting. I would highly recommend this book. Especially if you are thinking about getting a bird dog of any breed or thinking about getting another dog.

Helpful

This book was recommended to me by a member of the local NAVHDA chapter. Being new to bird dogs, I had contacted them for advice on how to condition my German Shorthaired Pointer for possible field work. I sampled some of the contents and found it informative; the chapter on "how to pet a dog" was particularly refreshing - I have read a lot of dog training books but none have actually addressed and explained it this well. I was not disappointed. I found the book very helpful in getting a general "feel" for how a bird dog thinks and how to condition the young pup for its future job. The instincts are there, serious training comes later, it's the in-between time where valuable conditioning can be applied that will make things easier for both dog and handler later on. I deducted one star because I am not entirely comfortable with some techniques described in the book, like teaching the WHOA command. It's a little too old school for my taste. Then again, I am not familiar with what techniques work best to train a bird dog, so I give Mr. Mueller the benefit of a doubt. Old-school is not always all bad. At any rate, these techniques may not be as unsettling as they sound if applied by an experienced trainer, and reading about them does not mean you have to use them. Just pick the good stuff from this book - there is plenty, and I therefore recommend it.

I'M USING THIS BOOK TO TRAIN MY SECOND DOG!!!

This Book Works!!! I'm using this book to train my second lab. I used this book to train my first lab (Ebony) in 1995 and am now using it now to train my new pup (Jack) in 2007. The book is geared for the hunter of both upland game birds and waterfowl, it is easy to read, easy to follow, and even easier to apply. Initially it utilizes the time that you are spending with your pup everyday anyway to turn it into a training session with more formal training sessions coming later. I've read the other well known retriever training book (Game Dog) and to me it was half story/half training...with a long boring introduction. I don't know about you but when you bring that new pup home you don't want to spend time reading a boring story about some other hunter's dog that was the greatest bird dog that ever lived etc. etc. etc. You want to start training your new pup!!! What I love about this book is that it has short introductions and then it gets into the meat of training your pup. The photos precede the text allowing you to have a visual image of what the training session is going to be like and then you'll read the text for more detailed information. You will see within a short period of time that if you'll simply follow Mr. Mueller suggestions you'll have a pup that is not only learning to hunt but is also learning to think while hunting; which is an outstanding quality for a lab to have. Don't wait until your pup is six months or a year old to start throwing some dummies around the yard to begin his "training"; do it now while the pup is still young (7/8 weeks) and learning is still fun. Oh, and don't let the title of this book fool you the book is 222 pages long...now does that sound like speed training!? This book teaches you to maximize the limited time we all have to train our pups in effect "speed training". Be patient with those pups they learn quick...and I'll see ya'll in the field. P.s. This book was written in 1987 before some of the modern dummies that are now used to train bird dogs. So, the only thing that I'm going to do different is initially use Dokken's Dead Fowl Trainers instead of those canvas covered boat bumpers before live bird introduction.

Well written and informative

Larry Mueller offers his unique way of speed training a bird dog, however, I do feel that his techniques are stressing to a dog - especially a sensitive dog or a young dog (say six-months). Larry does offer some excellent ways to train your dog on the basic obedience/hunting commands, but his use of force training goes beyond my personal preference. If you are a first-time trainer, training your own dog, this book is excellent - if you approach training with love and patience. Remember, you are training a friend and companion, not a strickly business hunting dog.