Sporting Dog and Retriever Training: The Wildrose Way: Raising a Gentleman's Gundog for Home and Field

Excelent book, with a very good quality!

This book is very good. While I don't agree with every concept it is excellent at gaining control of your dog. Which 90% of most hunters issues. We all want eager. But eager without control is worthless. Read this book. It will make you a better trainer.

I bought this book a couple of days after I got my Labrador pup. There were some amazing reviews and I thought I could use the well-known "Wildrose way" to train my dog and get the most out of him. Eventually I even got Mike Stewart DVDs to gain some more insight into Labrador training.After a couple of weeks, I realized this book is not for me for several reasons.First, even if this book wants to get you on right track from the first day, it fails when it comes to young dogs. You start a pup at page 61 and at page 107 you're supposed to have an 8-month old dog that has a strong obedience foundation. Add in the fact that some pages are mostly just photos, there's very little information that you get for a young dog. There's nothing about basic issues like house training. Basic skills like "place" or crate training are covered in just three paragraphs. If you've owned a Labrador pup you'll know that "simply replace the youngster and say place" will most likely drive you mad because those pups are active!If you're reading the book, all the skills should be so easy to teach. Lead work? Two paragraphs. Sit? A longer paragraph with a couple of photos. Early retrieves? Optimistically throw a knitted sock and hope that the pup will not play with it or run around. If he does do that, tough luck, no advice is given (there is a troubleshooting section but it just explains the problem). My dog, for example, would perform two retrieves in a row superbly one day, then run around with the same bumper the next day.Until the "Field training" section, this book is barely worth 2 stars. However, once you have an obedient dog that does retrieve enthusiastically, this is when the book really shines. There are almost 140 pages filled with drills and diagrams so you can teach your dog how to retrieve in a number of scenarios that should prepare you and your dog for hunting.Other than this, the book's other main problem is the fact that Mike Stewart uses negative reinforcement a lot (pull the leash up to make the dog sit) and has some weird theories (if a young dog puts his paw on your foot this means he's challenging your leadership). Also, it seems like the positive way to teach the delivery to hand is using hold conditioning which is simply a less brutal method of the classic forced fetch. However, once you get over these issues, there's a lot of useful information in this book. I'm not sure if there's a book on the market or any kind of resource with so much information about retrieving drills.

What a phenomenal book! Extremely well made and put together. I will be using this book to train, but I have to say, it would look good on the coffee table!As for the content, really fantastic! I love the way Mike presents all of his methods, especially the drills. I have a Chessie that is already 8 months old, so I am a little beyond a lot of the basic obedience. I would love to try his entire method with my next pup. Mike does not train with e-collars, but I do. Just the form of pressure I prefer. I have used resources from Jackie Mertens, Bill Hillman, Mike Lardy, etc. I am all about taking what I feel is most relative to the dog I am training and incorporating different techniques. Some people say just stick with one routine, that's crap. It will get boring for you and the dog. Very much looking forward to trying out the advanced techniques from Mike's book. I highly recommend it to any one training a sporting dog.Also, in regards to the reviewer who gave this one star because of all the "Negative" pressure that Mike uses...this person obviously has never trained high energy/high drive sporting dogs. Dogs are pack animals, just like their wolf brethren. In a wild situation a dominant canine would not ask nicely for other canines to obey (I am a wildlife biologist so I am using scientific proof here). They respect leaders. That does mean you beat your dog. There is a big difference and I think that particular reviewer has greatly blurred the lines. My dogs love and respect me, and I train with pressure, not negative reinforcement. Praise is still the most powerful tool in a trainer's arsenal.Bottom line, get this book and every other training resource so you can choose the method you feel is right for your dog and situation.

We have a Wild Rose Lab that was trained there. He is the best behaved dog ever! My daughter just got a Black lab and trained him from the basics in this book from this great kennel in Oxford, MS. The puppy is only 11 weeks old and so well behaved and trained. Mike Stewart (author) is truly a dog whisperer!

I have trained many dogs. I’m not an expert, but I wanted to try something different. This book focuses on a gentler approach to training a retriever. No forced retrieves, no shock collars. So far so good, I’ll have to let you know in a year or so how well she retrieves!

This book validated a lot of the training methods that I used while Interacting, training and handling my own hunting dogs. It uses what I would term as behavioral dog psychology; and centers on training man’s best friend as humanly as possible. It also addresses the elephant in the room which is human inconsistency and other bad habits we make as trainers. Every dog has an different personality and what I like best about this book is that it shows you how to work with those challenging personalities systematically.

This is a very thorough training manual for those of us who believe that dogs can be trained successfully to field trial standard without the use of electric collars or excessive force. the idea is to reward good behaviours and show verbal displeasure and obviously don't reward bad behaviour. Another foundation stone of the book is not to allow behaviours in the beginning that you will have to curb later. Thus for example even when first training with the dummy (bumper US) the pup is not allowed to run in. There are some very good clear exercises, drawn as diagrams and thus easy to understand.I found the introduction overlong but that's probably because I didn't need to be persuaded that this is an effective approach. Beautifully produced with great gundog photos

Reading this book has made me realize how misinformed I was with training my previous companion. Using the Wolters Water Dog training book. This book has a positive non abusive approach to training your dog. I’ve had my pup a week and already noticing results. I will say though not everything has worked. For example getting him to heel. I’ve done the tie out and slip lead work. But then again on his videos the dogs are 1.5 months older than my little guy. So patience on my part. But I will saw for the awakening the retrieving instinct in the hallway. I couldn’t get him to get it. So I went onto YouTube for other methods and the standing stone kennels method worked and I’ve got him retrieving now. So that’s what I mean for not everything has worked but others have. I have it the 5 stars anyway because it really is a good book. And from how my past dog turned out with the old school methods. The info these days and this book will be much better.

Excellent reading, really enjoy the tips for training. Very easy to apply and having great success with my pup using Roberts methods. Highly recommended reading.

I really enjoyed this book, it was well written and easy to understand and follow the steps required to build a confident dependable retriever

Great content, very helpful diagramsextremely comprehensive field training strategies