New from OH and Training first Lab Pup

[teej89]

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Hey guys!

Figured I'd do a little intro about myself before I BOMBARD you w/ questions forever. Anywho I grew up in central PA and my dad introduced me into the outdoors when I was a little tike. I took to loving it and grew up hunting and fishing and spending time in the outdoors. My dad was a huge waterfowl hunter(once I was able to hunt he gave that up to hunt deer with me unfortunately but we'd get out a couple times a year) so we always had labs growing up and he loved training them, below is a pic of our most recent group minus the yellow lab, we unfortunately lost her to cancer at a young age. Anyways they're all waterfowl dogs except the yellow she was upland and my dad was the trainer for them. I would help out but I was always too young or I wasn't home when he did it since he worked shift work and I'd be in school when he was off training them. So my experience actually training isn't a whole lot.

Well fast forward to now, i'm 26 and moved from central PA to central OH (Columbus to be exact) and since I have been outta school for a couple years and gotten this whole doing it on my own thing down I've decided to invest in a dog, not just financially but time wise. I've worked things out with work that I'll be able to take the whole week off when the pup first gets here then after that I am going to work 3hr shifts and go home to take care of the pup and hang with it for an hour, thankfully i work 10min from home. Anywho... I have a litter picked out and a deposit down, both parents have strong backgrounds in hunt tests and great health cleatances.

Alright to be honest, I've had dogs growing up my entire life and they were all (except one) hunting dogs. I've worked adult dogs but never had to train a puppy solely by myself from day one, I'm a little nervous slash freaked out. Doesn't help I'm an over thinker either, I can easily get into my own head, paralyzation thru over analyzation is what I've been told I do lol So if I pound you guys w/ too many threads or questions I apologize, I really can drive myself crazy, but I tend to ask a ton of questions when I start overthinking or else it just snowballs in my mind and drives me more nuts. You guys must be thinking what a looney I am right now... lol

I recently bought Jackie Mertens Sound Beginnings DVD and the Bill Hillmann DVD. I love the Hillmann DVD however I wish it was the unrevised version where they did Day 1, Day 2 ect.....

I have a TON more questions but figured I'd just start with a little intro.

Thanks guys!

T.J.

[marsh]

Welcome!! Hope to see how the pup progresses