rubicon_in_ga
Senior Member
I'm not much for hunting waterfowl, which I know labs are supposed to be great for, but I have a 7 month old chocolate lab and I do alot of squirrel hunting. He hasn't had any formal training, but he's got a knack for playing fetch, knowing his different toys by name ("ball," "rope," "ducky," etc), and we'll even play hide and seek with his toys and he can almost always find them. I would think he'd be a natural at retrieving just about anything. Any reason I couldn't train him to retrieve squirrels? I'd really like to take him out hunting with me and let him be part of the experience. Any tips on how to get him to specifically seek out the squirrels after they fall out of the tree? I'm thinking I should skin a couple of squirrels and use the skins as a training aid, since I haven't found any squirrel training scents on the market. I've never trained a dog for hunting, so this is all new to me. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!