Sending your dog to a trainer is good and bad. Training a dog yourself is good and bad. Let me explain.
If you truly don't have the time or wherewithal to train a dog yourself, spending the money and doing the research on a COMPETENT trainer is probably worth it. But it's all for beans if you aren't consistent with the pup after it gets back, or if the trainer doesn't walk you through how HE handles the dog. This is very, very important. There are so many subtle nuances to dog handling that you can get wrong, especially when you weren't involved with the process. Everything from where you put your hands, to voice inflection can cause different reactions or misdirection with a dog. You may think I'm being obtuse, but far from it. Something so subtle as speaking a command versus yelling it can cause confusion with a dog that's been trained one way or another.
Before shelling out the bucks for a trainer, find out EXACTLY what the finished product is going to be. With a retriever, basic hunting intro for a month likely won't, and shouldn't, include force fetch. I say shouldn't because a complete FF process takes at least 6 weeks, otherwise the trainer is cutting corners. Likely he is going to work on steadiness, more obedience, intro to birds, coming when it's called, and maybe whistle work. It just depends.
All of that you can do yourself.
"But I'd rather just pay a trainer," you say. "They can do it."
Wrong. The trainer is merely laying the foundation. Just like a house will crumble if it's not maintained, your dog will revert back to it's old, dopey self if you don't do regular maintenance work during the offseason.
This is a universal standard, regardless of how you train. Dogs get loose. That's a fact. If you have the best retriever in the world, it'll slip up come hunting season if you let it putz and loaf around for six months before opener.
Find out what the trainer has been working on so you, in the very least, can maintain your dog's level. If possible, find out what the next steps are. Chances are your dog might get bored doing the same three drills over and over and over. Either do your own research, or ask the trainer for assistance.
Anyway, that's my two cents. In truth, my gut instinct was to send my first wirehair off to get trained. Luckily for the both of us, he ingested a tube sock that cost $1,500 to remove, thus ending any talk of spending money on a professional trainer. I wound up doing it myself. He was my first hunting dog, and I was a complete novice.
Three years down the road, I put a Versatile Champion title on him. And now I've finished my second hunting dog, and helped with a least a dozen others.
Trust me, it can be done. Do some research and look for local hunting dog training clubs in the area. Fargo has a couple, as does Bismarck.
