Field training for Labrador Retrievers

By Jake Gordon

               Getting Labrador Retrievers to do exactly what a trainer wants in the field of hunting is the goal of Draper resident Jeff Finley. Although he only trains for his own personal dogs, Finley has had success with working with two separate dogs and is currently working with an 18-month old female named Izzy.

               Finley has been training Labrador Retrievers for five years. His first dog, Cache, turned out to be a success. Finley’s hard work training Cache resulted in such high scores in the master hunt tests that the United States Marine Corps offered to buy Cache for $5,000 to be used to sniff out underground mines.

               After selling Cache, Finley started working with Izzy and is amazed at her progress for an 18-month-old dog. Izzy is already able to compete in master hunt tests but still has some more work to do. Finley takes Izzy out to train at least two times a week, and she is getting closer to claiming a master hunt title.

   Training for Izzy normally takes place at the Lee Kay Center for Hunting Education in Salt Lake City where there is an area marked off for field training of dogs. Areas for field training have a number of man-made ponds where trainers can set up real life scenarios for hunting dogs. The ponds and the real-life hunting scenarios set up for training give the dogs an environment similar to what they face when thrust into the hunting environment or hunting test.

Now on his second dog, Finley admits that Izzy is coming along much better than Cache and that she is becoming priceless. “I don’t think I would ever sell Izzy because how easy she was to train,” Finley said. “If anything, I would just breed her after getting a master hunt title for her.

Finley mentioned that if someone offered to buy Izzy as they did with Cache, he wouldn’t be able to sell her.