Whether you have one pup or several, the individual training is the same. When the pup is eating, clap your hands loudly. If the pup startles, move away from him and try again. Once he ignores the hand clapping, bang feed pans together from a distance and gradually move closer. When he could care less about that level of noise, move to the yard with a .22 starter pistol or a shotgun with an insert that allows you to shoot primers. Have some help. Give the pup a couple of short retrieves to prime him and get him excited. You toss the bumper or bird while your helper shoots the pistol from about 50 yards away.

If the pup is so intent on the bird that he ignores the pistol, great! Move the helper closer gradually until the gunner is next to you. This may take one lesson or 10. Don’t rush it!

If you don’t have help, take pup out to a field. Let him run around and get 40 or 50 yards away. As pup is running around, shoot the pistol -- aim behind you and toward the ground. If he startles, ignore him and just keep walking. The ideal situation is when pup learns that bang means bird. You want to toss the bumper or bird and shoot at the arc of the fall (to simulate an actual hunt situation). Walk around the field some more. Yell, “Hey, hey!” toss the bird and shoot the pistol. Repeat until pup hears a shot and looks for a bird to fall.

Never shoot a shotgun directly behind pup, always next to him or in front and to the side. Shooting behind pup can deafen him from the muzzle blast or worse case, pup could jump out and you might shoot your dog by mistake.

Once pup is used to the pistol, use a shotgun, again with a helper. Remember to start off about 50 yards away. Have the helper toss the bird and shoot at the bird as it reaches the arc. (If you are using live shells, do not shoot the bird or you won’t have anything for the pup to fetch.) If all is going well at this stage, the pup will be so intent on the bird that he will ignore the gunfire. As pup relates bang to bird, he will get excited about the gun and start looking for the bird.

SIT VERSUS HUP AND WHISTLES
As a non-slip retriever trainer I have always used “Sit” over “Hup.” The purist spaniel trainers prefer “Hup.” Use whichever comes as second nature to you. Either command works; in fact, you could use “Cat” as the command if you want to be really unique -- the dog wouldn’t know the difference, because the dog, after all, is learning a command and not English: He would simply learn that the command “Cat” means that he should sit.

The universal whistle command is a single toot. Again, you have choices: This can be a whistle with a pea or without, an English “spaniel” whistle, or you can even just whistle with your mouth. It doesn’t matter as long as you stay with the same whistle you started with since they all have different tones. I personally prefer the Roy Gonia Professional clear whistle with a pea since it has a sharp clear tone. On the rare occasion I am without my whistle or it breaks, I have resorted to yelling the command, “Sit” with acceptable results.