How old is too old for field training a dog?

[tparker]

I have 2 female Golden retrievers. One is 3, the other is 8 months. I know that the optimal time to begin training is at a very young age. The 3 year old has excellent retrieving skills, even in water (a little lacking on the obedience end though). I'm wondering if I could train either of these for use on ducks and possibly pheasant and quail. What are some good training books and or websites? Thanks.

 

[birddog]

The dogs aren't too old to train. And females learn faster. The retriever instinct is perhaps the easiest to hone and if they're already showing that ability, you're ahead of the game.

The books that come to mind are "Speed Train Your Bird Dog", "Water Dog"...if I can think of any others, I'll post later.

Good luck, it will be frustrating at first, but rewarding in the end.

 

[XD40EZO]

I have a 7-year old, 115-lb, hunk of lard, yellow labrador - i guess we have to do weight management first before i could train him eh?

 

[unreal45]

A dog can be trained at any age.
Usually younger dogs are easier to train.
However you might find that the 3 yearold learns faster than the dog at 8 months.
YMMV

 

[bobelk99]

How old is too old to take a friend hunting for the first time?

 

[ToxicSports]

I taught a wild dog to catch lead at 150 yards....caught the .223 on the run but the excitment must have tired him out and he just took a long nap after that.

But seriously, I've seen older dogs trained with great results as well as younger dogs make a bucket of hammers seem like a genius. :banghead:

If the one already retrieves ducks then a pheasant or quail shouldn't be that much different to it.

I can't remember what the book was called but it was something like "Older hunting dog tricks." or something like that. I ran across it at the Library MANY years ago.


TS