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DS505: Field Foundations: Starting Your Retriever Puppy (or dog)

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DS505: Field Foundations: Starting Your Retriever Puppy (or dog)

Course Details

This course lays an amazing foundation for Retriever Field Sports like Hunt Tests! Using Positive Training!

If you are total beginner to Retriever field sports, we make it easy for you to learn the sport and how to train for it. It's a fantastic 6 week jumpstart for your puppy or adult dog! 
If you're experienced - but want a super efficient, clear cut program that seamless dovetails into advanced training, this course is proven to create Master Hunter titles and everything that leads to it.

It's is a step by step, layered program with specific milestones and end results! It takes about 5 minutes, 3 times per day. 

I'm excited to share it here for the first time - because I know it works. And I know it makes starting and finishing a retriever more fun for the dog than you ever thought possible! 

This system takes bad feelings out of the picture and makes it EASY with a layered, step by step approach. The key is to integrate our behavioral conditioning process into our SKILLS training and run them in parallel from the beginning. Instead of just teaching the skills and falling victim to frustration later when we get to challenging environments.

This class builds a layer by layer process Integrating amazing self control, and drive into each of the skills we need for the field. 

At the end of 6 weeks, you'll have a dog with the foundation skills of:

  • Steadiness while maintaining drive
  • Beginner Heel position and walking
  • Small scale Behavior Chain of a food mark
  • Beginner Recalls
  • Beginner Target Casting
  • Whistle sits
  • Distraction / Temptation control

And YOU will have a better understanding of how to transfer the value of the field chase, hunt and birds, into joy for teamwork behaviors.

That's what gives you the power to use this foundation to expand into field marking, blind retrieve training, water honesty, honoring, and all the rest. 

Puppies? This course is fantastic for healthy retriever puppies as young as 8 weeks old! It's also great for young dogs, adults or healthy seniors!

It's like installing the software of great teamwork into your dog - by channeling the value of the hunt, the chase, the bird, the food -  into the behaviors we want!  And into you as the coach. These skills make it possible to quickly put this foundation to work in the more advanced skills of Blind Retrieve Handling, Water Honesty, Multiple Marks, Honoring and more. 

It creates value for all the core behaviors we want with the layers of clarity the dog needs to get awesome success - even in the face of super strong instinctual drives and exciting environments. And I venture to say it's a whole lot easier, faster and more fun that you ever imagined!

Teaching Approach: 

We will use a super fun 3 sided teaching approach this term! 

  1. Video Lessons come out each week to build a layer that sets us up for the next week.
  2. Live Zoom call (optional - will be recorded if you can't attend live) at the beginning of each week to go over the lessons & take questions - They will be recorded and posted in the course to watch when you like.
  3. Written Instruction for the week + A Checklist cheat sheet for training sessions. 

And of course, Gold Level students will get to submit their own training videos and questions for my feedback. And Silver Level students will get to ask questions and submit two videos for feedback over the 6 weeks. 

Syllabus

View Full Syllabus

Each week, you'll get new video lessons with written checklists and a live zoom call going over that week's materials. Throughout the course, we will learn about the sport and how the training games become building blocks for the required field skills
On Mondays, new video lessons get posted.
On Tuesdays at 5pm Pacific / 7pm Eastern we do a live zoom call going over the weeks materials.

Week One - Installing the Software
You will have 4 short training games to practice. 
The games will introduce your puppy to: 
 - Self Control choice making
 - Recalls
 - Heel Zone
 - The crate as a training tool for introducing temptations. 

Week Two - Building The Layers

Your Training Games will cover:
 - Sits and adding the cue
 - Shaping to the Mat
 - And games that build on Self Control, Heel Zone and the crate temptations.

Week Three - Refining 

Your Training Games will cover:
 - Bigger Self Control with tosses and bowls
 - Whistle Sit Introductions - and adding the cue
 - Coming into Heel Position from all sides

Week Four - Bringing it Together

Your Training Games will cover:
 - Combining our building blocks to create new skills
 - Adding Self Control to Heel Zone
 - Progressing Whistle Sits & adding temptations- "sit where you are, even if I move"
 - Creating a field run behavior chain - indoors 

Week Five - Adding Challenge

Your Training Games will cover:
 - Release Cue - build value and test it
 - Add motion and Leash to Heel Zone
 - Take Crate Temptations on the road
 - Take your Whistle Sits and Field Runs Outside

Week Six - Leveling Up

Your Training Games will cover:
 - Whistle sits while running
 - Self Control Choices with Bumpers, Balls, Birds
 - A look at training Holding Blinds, Honoring, Steadiness for Marks

Prerequisites and Equipment




Sample Lecture

More

Welcome To Field Foundations! Starting Your Retriever!

This is an introduction and overview of our 6 week course together! Below is an important video to watch. You don't have to take action on it or train anything just yet, just watch and listen.

One more important note before we start! Each week, I'll be offering a live zoom conference to discuss each week's content and your wins and challenges! 

Here's our weekly schedule

Mondays: Your new set of video lessons get published plus a game plan for your training.

Tuesdays: We'll have a live zoom call ! We'll highlight key points of each lesson and take limited questions. 

[ Zoom calls will happen at 5:00pm Pacific Time and will be recorded and posted in the course to watch anytime ] 

Screenshot_2025-03-06_at_4.31.49 PM.png


This guided foundations course is designed to do 4 things:

1. Install a training language and style between you and your pup!

2. Install the behavioral conditioning hardware in your pup. A system of transferring the value of rewards into control behaviors. Creating fun for steadiness, thinking, team work and more.

3. Teaching skills like sit, heel, targets, lining to a retrieve, recall and whistle sits. 

4. Relationship! Interwoven into all of it is your relationship. what makes relationship? Trust, good communication, kindness and understanding! 

All of that is what creates an amazing foundation for being a great companion and a great sporting dog!

This foundation is also designed carefully and specifically to be an effective launching pad for field sport success, like hunting, Hunt Tests and field trials. This course is the core piece of my complete retriever training program!

It is a complete and super efficient training program to Jumpstart my dog's success for field sports. The program balances on 6 Foundation elements. These are the building blocks that when put together, form each of the five major field skills, as shown below.Screenshot_2025-03-22_at_2.51.53 PM.png

 Here's the important video to Introduce you to this course & set you up for success:

 

Testimonials & Reviews

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New class for the April 2025 session.

Registration

There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please subscribe to our mailing list for notifications.

Registration opens at 10:30am Pacific Time.

DS505 Subscriptions


Gold

Silver

Bronze
Tuition $ 260.00 $ 130.00 $ 65.00
Enrollment Limits 12 25 Unlimited
Access all course lectures and materials ✔ ✔ ✔
Access to discussion and homework forums ✔ ✔ ✔
Read all posted questions and answers ✔ ✔ ✔
Watch all posted videos ✔ ✔ ✔
Post general questions to Discussion forum ✔ ✔ ✖
Submit written assignments ✔ ✖ ✖
Post dog specific questions ✔ With video only ✖
Post videos ✔ Up to 2 ✖
Receive instructor feedback on
  • Questions
  • All videos
  • Questions
  • All videos
✖

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