10 MO Old Lab and Question about retrieving

[Suds77]

Alright everyone so here is my question. My lab is the first dog I have ever purchased myself along with training and now going to be working in the blind.

We have two dogs that will be hunting in our group, one that belongs to me and one that belongs to a good buddy. A little background is I purchased my dog because my buddies is now 8 or 9 years old and is probably only a season or two away from being retired.

His dog goes into the water on first shot everytime...even if we don't hit anything. This has been an issue for years however we dealt with it because he was the only dog. I understand on retrieves the first dog wins or whatever however my pup will not go unless I send him which means he will get far less retrieves due to the other dog going on first shot.

How would you go about this situation as I do not want my pup to go on first shot into the water because it negates everything I have been doing.

[RoostersMom]

Trade dogs every other day - or ask your buddy to hold his dog and let yours get the retrieve. You'll have to confront him if you're going to run two dogs in the blind and you don't want yours to pick up bad habits.

[Suds77]

Yeah we have started to confront him about it because we actually thought his dog wouldn't be hunting this season because he got a hold of that aweful limes disease. The dog still has another shot or two to get and he is just starting to get him conditioned.

This isn't that big of a deal I just don't want bad habits to be picked up and I've put a lot of time into having a dog that is a true hunting dog.

[adogslife]

This being his first season you may not want to shoot instead take advatage of the training opportunity. You will need to pay more attention to your dog then to shooting.
Can your friend put a rope on his dog to prevent him from a few retrieves and you can send your dog?

[Suds77]

That is a good idea with the rope. I actually am not bringing a gun for the first three hunts then I'll have my gun but will shoot very little.

[adogslife]

word of caution with the rope
If his dog is likely to carry on like an banshee, he may actually teach your dog to behave the same

[quackaddict]

I would trade the dogs out every other hunt, or try to take yours a little more than the older dog. And don't let your dog start breaking on the shot. Hold him yourself or use a leash to tie him off. My dogs have only taken one or two time of bolting and hitting the end of the lead before they figured out the game.