How much did you spend on training your dog?

[CHEVYFREAK1822003]

I just addopted a new pup last month. Her name is marley and she is about 5 month old golden lab mix. I was originally planning to train her myself. However since she will be my first bird dog,I'm thinking  i may be better off brining her in to be trained. We would mainly hunt phesant with her a couple weekends a year however i'm thinking i might want to include some water training if i ever do decide to do some watefowl hunting.
My question is on average how much do you guys spend on getting your dogs trained?

I've looked online at a few of the places i've seen sugested and they seem to be in the $600- $800 a month range. So when your talking a two to three month program thats anywhere from $1200 to $2400.
Does that seem about right?
How much do you guys spend on training your dogs?
Never having a bird dog that seems like a lot but the agian people spend a lot more on far more ridicuolus stuff.

[pheasantman2121]

Check out brian at west country kennels.  He is awesome and he will remeber you by first name even years later unlike most trainers where you are jsut another person.  I brought my dog there and so did a friend of mine and he has a bunch of diffrent options and programs depending on how much you wanna spend.  Tell him Jesse Robinson refered you

[The General]

If I were you I would only go with a trainer who is also going to train you.  Training the dog the commands is one thing but reinforcing the commands is another.  I could be wrong, but when I hear you say you're only going to hunt a couple weekends a year it sounds like you are a busy guy and don't have a lot of time.  Dogs are place oriented and the trainer will have them doing everything you pay for most likely before you leave.  You are going to need the skills and time to reinforce those commands at home, because just like a little kids your dog is going to see what it can get away with.  For example if the trainer is going to collar condition the dog you are going to need to know how to do that at home.  Same with Force Fetching if you have that done.  Sure the dog is doing it for the trainer but then at home the dogs stops or misbehaves, how ever the trainer corrected that action you are going to want to do the same.  Are you getting trained what you want trained?  For example I do all of my own training and it takes time and diligence.  I don't teach the command stay (I used to), but I now feel a dog should sit until I tell him he doesn't have to any more.  So if I sent my dog out for training I wouldn't want a trainer to teach the "Stay" command.  If I was a dog trainer I would try and train the owners as much as the dog.

P.S. Most do, but make sure you are getting your dog collar conditioned and purchase a shock collar. 

[glenn57]

i sent my first lab to obedience school. the dog should show signs of it bred into it, retrieving that is. i know some will disagree with me, but unless you want it to be grand national champ to me sending the dog to training is a waste of money. you need to spend time with it, like i said if its bred into the dog all you need to do is tweek it.

[glenn57]

pretty much agree with what the general said. your best bet is training the hound to your specks, what you want it to do!

[pickelfarmer]

I have trained many dogs in my day and all I can say is this. Buy a book on training dogs to the standard you want to use them for and do it yourself. It is so much more rewarding hunting over a dog that you have trained yourself. That and like The General and Glenn have said it has a lot to do with training the trainer. You may have to spend a lot of time training but in the end you will see the reward.

[Bobby Bass]

I agree with the others you got to spend time with the pup and get him or her to bond with you, sometimes you get lucky and the pup will PICK you in which case you will have a friend for life. My biggest tip is don't let the wife feed the dog, Who ever controls the food bowl gets the attention, It worked with your wife on you, right!