Before you begin to train your Standard Poodle for field events there are a number of training principles that you must learn and understand in order to achieve success. Most people have trained several dogs unsuccessfully before they actually begin to understand these principles well enough that they can apply them to successfully training a Poodle.

These principles are no secret. They have been discussed for years by the more successful retriever field trainers, but it seems that we each must come to an intimate realization of these concepts by trial and error before being able to apply them to actual dog training. I would like to give credit to all of the books, trainers, dogs and friends who have helped me to develop an understanding of these concepts but the list would fill all of the megs available for this web site. Special appreciation goes to Alice Woodyard, Mike Lardy, Dennis Voigt, Marilyn Fender, Jack Gwaltney and Diane Bauman because their words continue to echo around in my brain and I continue to learn from what they have said in the past. For special help in my personal understanding of field training, motivation for better work and making available to me their unlimited resources, knowledge and encouragement I give credit, gratitude and thanks to professional trainers, William Totten, Frank Baird and Mike Cicero.

And finally, before you begin, be sure that your dog has a solid temperament and aptitude for the performance activity that you have chosen. If your dog is gun shy, fearful of new situations, shows excessive anxiety, or has a low prey drive then it will never become a successful hunting dog. If your dog has no aptitude for this game then you are being cruel to attempt to force field training onto such a dog. If this is the case then you need to either change games for both of you or obtain a dog with enhanced natural interests. (See Aptitude testing)

1. You must be fair to your dog. By this I mean, teach the dog an exercise or concept before you attempt to correct the dog for doing something that it did wrong. A Poodle can be unforgiving of a correction that it does not understand. If the dog understands a concept and then chooses to disobey or not do the required and well understood action and you give a correction that is of appropriate degree and timing for the infraction, your Poodle will accept that correction and react positively by DOING the action required of it and will not hold a grudge. On the other hand, if the dog does not understand the correction he may be resentful, afraid to try again, and will develop a decrease in attitude and motivation. The lack of understanding is usually because the dog was not adequately taught what was expected of it, but it may be that the correction was of inappropriate degree for the infraction, or the timing of the correction was off. In fact, most dogs who are corrected for not doing something that they understand in an appropriate degree and time will react by trying much harder the next time and will react with joy and relief to realize that in fact, they do not have a choice in the matter.

Improperly applied corrections result in poor momentum and poor attitude. Well timed corrections of appropriate degree given to a dog who understands what is expected results in increased attitude and momentum.

How do you know that a dog understands an action? If you have taught the action and then on another day you test the dog and he does it and then on a second day at a location different from the training site you test him and he does it correctly he probably understands. However, don't forget that if you don't repeat the test for a couple months he will most likely forget it, as it usually takes about 2 months for an action to get from the short term memory into the long-term memory of a dog. It is a somewhat shorter time for people (usually)! REMEMBER: Dogs do not generalize very well. In other words, what they learn at home will not carry over to doing the same action at an unfamiliar site until a dog has gained both age and experience.

2. Train for momentum.

3. Establish high standards of performance. If the dog has trouble on a concept then you should simplify the concept, not decrease your standard.

4. Live by the "go, stop, come" rule, and "go as sent rule". In other words, early on the dog learned to go out, to stop on a whistle and to return when called. If they don't do one of these actions then immediate backtracking of your training and reestablishment of foundations must be accomplished. This also applies to going as sent. This means that if you send a dog North and he decides to go Nowthwest then that requires a correction and back tracking.

5. Vary your training level. If a dog is asked to perform the most difficult task that you have taught him every test and every day of training pretty soon he gets depressed and demotivated. If you have a difficult day of training with lots of corrections or are working on a difficult concept for the dog then you should spend the next day to several days on simple marks, easy drills , and lots of fun and "atta boys" to rebuild confidence and momentum. A test involving triple or quad marks and a difficult blind should be followed by 2 or 3 sets of multiple gunner singles. A test with difficult to find marks in deep cover should be followed by some singles or simple doubles in short cover with white bumpers or ducks with white streamers tied to them.

6. Continue to train your dog to use his eyes rather than his nose. A retriever is first and foremost a hunting dog who must use his eyes to mark the falls. It is important to continue to stimulate this talent. Dogs are primarily scored on their marking ability at tests and trials. This also means that training for nose work should not be started until the dog is very adept at using his eyes. All dogs can scent and search by scent, not all dogs are excellent markers. If you want to do field work successfully with your Poodle then your training of the dog as a puppy should concentrate on eye work.

7. Teach active exercises first. This means that if you are going to start collar conditioning the Poodle begin with active (recalls) exercises. Many Poodles are sensitive and clingy dogs. If you start collar conditioning by doing the static "sit" exercise, or even "heel" you will see a tendency to clam up. The dog learns to shut down with pressure rather than to "perform". This carries over to force fetch also. Initial exposure to pressure should be to encourage action rather than stationary behaviors. Once the Poodle is properly collar conditioned (we recommend the Lardy Collar Conditioning video as an excellent information source) you may consider doing the Lardy "no-no" drill as the next exposure to collar pressure.