Basic Waterfowl Program

Retrievers that come to Richard for waterfowl work start here. The program builds the pieces a duck dog needs before it is asked to hunt: a dog that obeys, a retrieve that is reliable, an e-collar the dog understands, and a first look at the kinds of setups it will meet in a blind or on a levee.

The program at a glance

Richard's own figures, as of October 2026.

The four parts

Obedience comes first because everything else stands on it. Force fetch is a structured way of teaching a dog to pick up, hold and deliver on command; the force fetch guide explains the general idea. E-collar conditioning teaches the dog what the collar means before it is used in the field; see e-collar conditioning. The basic hunting-scenario introduction puts those pieces together in setups that look like a real hunt.

Richard's retriever work grows out of the Rex Carr method for Retriever Basics, which he learned under Billy Sargenti while working with field trial retrievers.

Why 10 to 16 weeks

The length depends on the dog. Richard gives a range rather than a fixed number because dogs arrive at different ages and with different starting points. He will tell you where in that range he expects your dog to land when you talk.

Hunt tests

Hunt tests are not a separate program. The obedience and retrieving built here are the skills AKC Junior Hunter tests ask for, and Richard is active in the AKC retriever hunt test community, has run and qualified at an AKC Master National, and runs dogs and assists clients at local weekend tests. Ask him how the work fits a test goal.

What comes next

Dogs that finish the Basic Waterfowl Program can move on to the Advanced Waterfowl Program: steadiness in the blind, hand signals and cold blinds. Lessons help you handle the dog the way it was trained. Drop-off days and booking are on the board-and-train page.