Training Retrievers: The Cotton Pershall Method

In the opinion of many, nobody was more influential or had a greater impact on retrievers — their training, handling, and breeding — than Cotton Pershall. This book was a command performance, because thousands of dog owners and trainers requested that Pershall's methods be set down for generations to follow. Through the eyes and words of professional trainer Bobby N. George, Jr. that's exactly what happened. The book includes complete techniques and training guidelines for lining, marking, obedience training, play training, handling doubles and triples easily, land and water retrieving, the forced retrieve, techniques to make your dog a more effective waterfowl retriever, and starting puppies through finishing a dog — as well as fifty years of reminiscences about dogs, trainers, waterfowl hunts, and field trials.

The late Bobby N. George, Jr. worked as a sports writer for several newspapers while honing his dog-training skills through afternoons in the field with the legendary trainer Cotton Pershall. He later began working with Bill Eckett's Blackwater Retrievers and, in 1991, he went on his own as a professional retriever trainer. He eventually returned to Blackwater Retrievers, and in 2004 the Blackwater dog NFC-AFC Dewey's Drake of Moon River won the National Retriever Championship.