I suggest reading up and training yourself. The reward is priceless. Check out Bill Hillmann's videos on YouTube. If not Jonathan Watts at Bear Creek Retrievers is your go to guy.

Train yourself. Go buy Water Dog. Been in publication since the 60's and still one of the best ways to train your dog yourself. Start at chapter one and you will be amazed at what the dog can do by the end and the bond you will have will make the dog better for you. I have a ton of experience with this and currently have a British Lab that is top of his game.

HCV is spot on. Simple. Be consistent. Your dog will fully handle at 6 months if you are able to put the time in. The internet has made alot of "trainers". No replacing threading about it.

And enjoy old man Wolters hairdo...looks like Einstein! LOL

Water Dog is a great book written in the 1950's or 60's. It was cutting edge at the time and Richard Wolters was a great salesman. Times have changed and there are easier, faster and much better ways to train a dog today.

I trained my last lab and it was awesome. She would out hunt and work most professional trained dogs, people were amazed that I did it. A huge part of it is how much drive they have. I tell people she trained me on how to train her. Lots of satisfaction watching her. I sure miss her.

Assuming you dog has a hunting background/good drive, you couldn't go wrong doing the training yourself. I trained my current dog with me hunting in mind, not hunt tests. From personal experience, when duck hunting, the majority of your birds will be somewhat easy marks for the dog. Repetitive marking and denials helped really turn it on for my dog. Essentially, if you can train your dog to be obiedent, sit still and be quiet, the natural instincts will do the rest.

That's just my .02, for what it's worth.

If you were closer, I would help you out. I have the facilities to work both land and water.

I Second that. Jwattsmojo on here

If you want to see some really good dog work come to the HRC Grand starting Monday at Forever wild formally State Cattle Ranch in Greensboro Alabama. There will be a ton of pro handlers there. I understand there are over four hundred dogs entered.

I trained 3 duck dogs using this book. It works

always wanted to go to this when I lived down that way. I bet it's awesome watching those dogs

Chris is doing an awesome job with my dog it only took him 2 months to get basic gun down 100% and he thought it would take 3. Doing hand signals and stopping on the whistle now. Anybody want any videos I'll be glad to share