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Unfortunately, most of them around here want to take the dog away to train and then deliver a fully finished product to the owner. I would want to train WITH the dog. Really, my husband should do it, because he's the hunter. However, he has little time and prefers to use his hunting buddy's already trained German Shorthairs. Neither one of them would have any patiences for a partially trained dog.

Also, Max has shown no interest in retrieving anything except a tennis ball. I have bird wings and training dummies for him, but he just looks at me as if to say, "You don't expect me to pick THAT up, do you?"

My previous retriever used to love to bring back a bird wing. (She slipped a disc when she was 4 and could not do field work.) I always kept a duck or pheasant wing in the freeze, and I would hide it around the house and then release her to find it. She loved that game. Max shows no interest in that at all.

She also liked to bring the game in from the trunk of the car and look at me as if to say, "Look what I found for you!"

Perhaps the difference is that the wings I used to have were from freshly killed birds, originally. I just kept them in the freezer and we'd play with them from time to time.

The wings I have now are imports from China and preserved in some way. They undoubtedly smell different. I'll have to try some "real" wings from my husband's next hunt. He keeps bring the birds home already cleaned, unfortunately.

Luckily, we are both quite content to have an office and house dog.