by: Tom Dokken

[Introduction]

0:31 Announcer: GundogsOnline.com helping you get the most from your hunting dogs. Brought to you by Dokken Dog Supply, quality dog training products and accessories.

0:47 Hey, if there's one piece of training equipment that you have to have in your training bag, this is it, a launcher and a launcher dummy. Now one of the most obvious reasons for having this in your training bag is it's going to give you (launcher) the ability to get your dog's retrieve way further than what you're going to be able to hand throw.

As a matter of fact, one of the biggest problems that you're going to have with your training at home is your dog is always going to be used to 30 yard retrieves and then you knock that bird down 100 yards and your dog's going to be lost.

1:16 Hi, Tom Dokken from Oak Ridge Kennels in Northfield, Minnesota. We're here at our training facility for Dokken Dog Supply and I'm going to give you some tips on how you can make this work, not only for retrieving but working on steadiness as well.

You can see we've got our dog on the platform, the steady platform. And we're going to require him to stay there and we're going to go through this right now. So we're going to have him sit. (whining)(launcher)(whining) Rookie. (splashes)

Now you can see that retrieve is far further than what I can throw. But there's actually little things that we can do with our handheld retriever launcher. If I want to start with short retrieves, which is really important to gradually work your dog out, all I'm going to do is I'm going to put the dummy a little further up on the shaft. This will make the dummy go a little shorter.

Now, if we want the long retrieves, obviously put it all the way down on the shaft.

2:13 Now you can notice we've got Rookie retrieving a white dummy. That's pretty critical too. If we're working on building a dog's confidence, I'm going to use something white. A young dog or something that might be a little bit further than what your dog's used to. Gradually we're going to work our way out to a darker or a neutral tone color. Your dog is going to have to use his noes a little bit more in order to make this retrieve.

Now, if you're using this piece of equipment, you've got two things going for you. You've got longer distance. You've got the gun shot which actually simulates a hunting situation. And you can work on your steadiness at the same time. If you don't have one of these tools in your box, go out and get one.

3:00 Good boy, Rookie. (whistle) Sit. Drop. Good boy. Good job. Alright.

3:13 [Closing]

3:36 Announcer: GundogsOnline.com helping you get the most from your hunting dogs. Brought to you by Dokken Dog Supply, discover the Dokken's difference.