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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Duckslayer100" data-source="post: 208652" data-attributes="member: 1485">I think if you're getting a started dog, you have to have some SERIOUS confidence in who you're buying it from that it's started to the level that was advertised. I know personally some breeders and trainers who sell "started" dogs that they've had kenneled for over a year and get out to play fetch and do some nominal OB work. If that's all you want and it's priced fairly, that's one thing. But if I'm spending the money, there's a level I expect a dog to be at. My advice would be to research hard before committing, and then have the owner run the dog through whatever paces he's sworn to. After that, have yourself do the same thing with the owner present. You can see how the dog responds, and the current owner might give you some pointers on how to handle the dog. Believe it or not, there are a lot of subtle nuances to training that dogs pick up on. Your voice inflection, body stance, hand movements and even demeanor can greatly impact how a dog responds to you versus the person who trained it. That's one of the biggest reasons I really push for folks to try to train their own dogs or, at the very least, visit with a trainer weekly to "step in" and see what's been taught. Because believe it or not, the owners need the training just as much, if not more, than the dogs. The words that make my skin crawl from dog owners after getting their hound back from a trainer are, "man, I spent beaucoup bucks and had Rex at the trainer for three months and he can't do shit!" I always question if that's actually because the trainer didn't do justice, or the owner just doesn't know his way around a dog.</blockquote>

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