looking for some opinions/referals

I currently have three dogs in our family. Plenty of room on 8 acers. Two are mine and one is the wifes. I have two chesepekes one 9 and the other 13. I am considering getting another dog. I always said I would wait for my oldest to pass and have been saying that for 2 years, I say every year she wont make it through winter, I am saying that again this year. She seem fine happy most of the time but she is old with a few medical difficulties (hips, spine and stomach). My 9 year old seems to be going strong still but I worry. I cant condittion like I want or should from medical problems she had (long story) I have to wait for the weather to cool to start. There was just a discussion on here about how long before they retire and when do you start holing them back??? well at 9 years I am headed off for my annual 5 day hunt in nd., last year she made it with not much troubles but like I said she is getting older and would like to get a pup to help her out and give her a break.
What I am considering is getting a started dog. Maybe 6 mo. to a year old. This would be a first as I have always trained my own dogs and feel I was fairly succesfull with training myself. I want to be fair to the new dog and dont no if I will have time to put into a puppy. A started dog will not take as much time to finish as starting from scratch. I dont plan on any field trial dog just a good upland and ducks on occasion dog. I can finish with hand signals and such if I so desire I would have time for that.
So who has good labs?? Started?? Yes I would be switching to a lab
Is a started dog a bad Idea???
A puppy is not out of the question I would probally just end up sending her out for the field training I would do the obiedance.
Nothing like procrastinating
Doing your own traing from a puppy to an adult do you see any advantages?? bonding???
Don any ideas?

It sounds like you want a started dog to hit the fields this year. The age you are looking for is still young, so bonding won’t be an issue. If you happen to find one that fits your needs, put about 1.5 hours a day with the dog for two weeks and you will be pals for life. Take it for walks, playtime, and training twice a day.
The thing with getting a pup is you have the satisfaction of raising and training it from the beginning. On the other hand a dog that is a little older won’t get you up in the middle of the night to empty.
Check with the following- http://www.dokkensoakridgekennels.com http://www.labsunlimitedkennels.com
http://www.almabottom.com

If you are thinking of a pup, I have a good source that has yellow lab pups that are 6 weeks old right now. I will find out Tuesday if he has any not spoken for.

Thanks for the info don. I knew you would have some input. I dont “need” a dog this year as mine should make it through with no problems but if the right dog came about I wouldnt hesitate. I have checked with oakrige and they have nothing. They forwarded me to 2 differnt places, cannon river and some one else. Cannon river has 1 that may be a possability, a 4 month female black.
Alma is pointing labs and I prefer to stick with the flusher as that is what I am most familiar with and enjoy.
I am in no hurry and have been looking for a little while. What I will end up with is a female black lab. I havent decided between a british and an american. Any thoughts there???
At 9 yrs old if I go the puppy route it would be 2011 season before she would have any good experiance under her belt. That would put my dog at 11. I am guessing she will slow down by then. This is my main reason for the search.

I knew I wanted a hunting companion but I knew I wouldn’t have/make the time to train the dog to how I wanted her because of other commitments such as being a father to a 9 and 11 year old, baseball and softball, fishing plus the other things in life such as work, family and friends.

Here is what I did: After doing some research I decided a breeder/trainer who has a great program for me. I committed to the first pick of a female out of a litter that was due. Sadie was born March 1st 2008. We took her home at 7 weeks of age where we created our bond. We took her everywhere from rides to the store to exposing her to lots of people at baseball/softball games to taking walks at home and in the country. I think at about 16 weeks of age she went back to the trainer for exposure to birds and guns. For 2 weeks she worked with the trainer chasing birds and exposure to gunfire. At about 7 months of age she went back again to the trainer for the formal training as a started dog. She was gone for about two and a half months, but I was encouraged to pick her up on weekends and hunt her hard and so we did by chasing pheasants. Once training was completed I have a dog that knows and obeys the commands of: Here, heal, sit, look, okay (release command), good, no, mark (on bumpers thrown), fetch, hold (bird or bumper in mouth), kennel and quiet.

I definitely have a good bond with Sadie. She is always at my side even now while I’m at the keyboard surfing IDO she is laying here next to me. A lot of the basic obedience most people can train providing the proper amount of time is given. For me the greatest value the trainer provided was the forced fetch. The forced fetch can be discouraging for the dog and very frustrating owner/handler.

We didn’t hunt fowl last year but she did great for me this past weekend and am very proud of her. I’ve attached a picture of her and her first duck from Saturday.

Let me know if you need the name and number of the trainer I use. I do know of a few people that use him and all have been very pleased with him.

I didn’t notice it in Don’s post, but Sadie came from Labs Unlimited. If you talk to Jerry, tell him hello from Francis and Sadie.

OK, that gives you plenty of time to make a good choice. I will let you know if come accross a can’t pass on dog.
I really don’t have an opinion one way or another on Brittish or American.

Jay,

Give my buddy Travus a call. 612-388-2850 I’m not sure what he has for started dogs right now, but its worth giving him a call. I’m pretty sure he was with when we hunted down by Marshall. He had his black lab “Shorty” along. Another option would be to pick out a pup and then he could train it this winter. Hes pretty open so let him know what you want to do.