River Dogs, proficiency at riding and working from a boat. - written by Butch Goodwin of Northern Flight

Boat Work written by Butch Goodwin of Northern Flight Retrievers The Retriever Journal Nov./Dec. 20001 My column in the previous issue of The Retriever Journal dealt with river dogs. It occurred to me while writing it that one of the major responsibilities required of many well-trained river dogs is proficiency at riding and working from a boat quietly and with confidence. And, since familiarity with boats is such an extremely important part of the training program for almost all waterfowl hunting dogs and is so rarely considered important enough to write about, the editors suggested that I discuss it. (Plus, I think they wanted to find out how to make their own dogs behave better. At least that would be my guess based on the photo below.) Over the years, I have recommended that if there is one single word in a retriever’s training regimen that simply can’t be overemphasized it is obedience. All training fundamentals begin at the trainer’s side when the pup is a youngster, and obedience is the springboard for everything that follows. Yeah, it’s fun to teach an eager prospect to run lines, stop, and handle at a distance; it is exciting to see that, “Wow, look what I found” reaction of a wide-eyed pup the first time he discovers a planted bird on his own. But without the control that close-in obedience provides, everything that subsequently takes place away from the trainer’s side, out in the field, will likely eventually begin to unravel. When someone calls or e-mails with a training problem, in addition to advising how to work through the difficulty, I always also suggest that they begin and end every training session by putting the pupil through a short obedience drill. Kind of like the “warm-up” and “cool-down” phases of an exercise program, these short obedience drills give the trainer and his dog an opportunity to work on something they can both agree on and end each session on a positive note. Many of the dogs that I get in to my kennel for training already have tremendous advanced skills that the owners simply want polished-up; but, unfortunately, if there is any single detail that has generally been overlooked and is causing that training to disintegrate, it is the dog’s lack of unquestioned obedience - and this will have repercussions on all of his future training.
	As with any training, it's best to start acquainting your future partner with a boat at an early age.

	Progressive training by starting the dog in and out of a boat on land produces a dog that has little difficulty dealing with boat work in deeper water.

	With the boat still on land but now close enough that his first leap will put him immediately into standing water, the dog can learn to a deal with retrieving and the delivering the training dummies from a boat before he has to deal with deep water.

	The environment is new, so initial boat training must involve much encouragement. Make sure the boat is steady, and teach him to sit still on the "place" carpet and jump out only when sent to retrieve.