A fella my hubby works with has been telling me of a fantastic lab pup he has and uses as a gundog. He thinks the pup is something special and would like to have it trained 'properly'.

Apparently he doesn't want to spend the time training it himself and would rather send it away for a few weeks to be trained. He has also said that he has problems with training himself and when I asked him a few questions he admitted to being 'heavy handed' with them - :( Thinks it's the only way they learn.

Anyway my question is ...

Is it possible to send a dog to be trained like this and roughly how much would you expect it to cost? Also is there and age/time of year (shooting seasons etc) when it is done.

He's going to do whatever he wants anyway but I thought it might help the dog if I could point him in the right direction!

Yes it is certainly possible to have the dog sent away for training. I know several people who say they don't have the time or inclination to train their own dogs and so have sent them to "professionals" to train for them. I am sure the cost varies but it certainly costs several hundreds of pounds and I know one guy who got his dog trained in exchange for a pup or two from a litter. It's also possible for dog and handler to have training at the same time which might be a better bet in this case. My son has trained our spaniels and has done a good job, certainly as good as dogs who have had "professional" training! I am sure you get a better working relationship with a dog you have trained yourself but thats just personal opinion. Tell him to look in the shooting times, there are usually lots of adverts in there, the working kennel websites can be quite helpful too.
Jacky

Alot will depend on the trainer as to how much they charge but a friend of mine who is a Professional trainer charges about £80 per week.I train dogs for people who ask me to for shooting mainly but I have to say most of the time its the owners that need training more so than the dog.

I think this is the case here... if the owner could be trained then he could train the dog himself :rolleyes: