Was recommended by my trainer, to start our new pup. Lots of great positive reinforcement stuff.

This is a great video to train puppies to retrieve. It not only lays the foundation but provides ways to make corrections in the puppies bad habits.

I have had a copy of this DVD before, passed it on to a friend, this is my second copy.

Lots of good training tips for retriever puppies.

The first lab I'm training for hunting, I like the video it's making it easier to train.

Good for first time dog owners. You definitely need to take notes while you watch the video.

It is a quality video that helps you get started training a puppy. If you have trained retrievers before, it isn't likely you will learn much from this video but it definitely reminded me of some things I hadn't thought about. I think anyone that hasn't trained a dog or someone that hasn't had to train a puppy in a while will enjoy this video.

Excellent video for people looking to learn even the basics of starting your puppy. Jackie makes obedience very easy to follow. I would recommend you watch the DVD as your pup grows up. Some of the more technical work towards the end can overwhelm new puppy owners.

Really good dvd. Jackie and her team really know what they are doing when it comes to starting pups right. The only thing I wish it had was a defined schedule when certain drills should be started.

It's a good all around obedience video for basics and obedience.

It's a good video. Very informative but a little expensive for what it is.

Great training for pups! Fast shipping!!!

Great for training a new pup. We recommend this video to all our puppy buyers.

Worth the money! Solid review of how to start your puppy the right way.

This is a pretty good resource, but it seems to bounce around. I could not tell if this was a step by step guide or just a collection of exercises. The timeline was hard to follow as well. I wasn't sure what ages I'd start moving into the more advanced stuff.

My puppy is now 14 weeks, and this video was recommended by the breeder. It is excellent, not only in my opinion, but several of the dog owners I have met through the breeder. I especially appreciated her information on training a very young puppy -- because that is what I have.

We had asked our breeder for a resource for basic obedience training. We informed him we were not interested in using the dog for hunting. This is what he recommended. We got very little out of the cd. A total waste of $50 (with the shipping and handling). So disappointed!

The video is good. Not great but good. I did get some useful tips out of it such as teaching the puppy to come and sit as well as how to introduce him to guns and water. I will say however some of the exercises seem geared towards a competition dog and require multiple people to be involved. I wasn't expecting that as I'm primarily the dogs trainer and don't have that people willing to take time to do some of the exercises. One thing I really wanted was how to keep the dog from talking back to my youngster and trying to nip her. Didn't see anything on that. So again, good video, not great. It was my first time using a video to train, so I didn't know what to expect.

Comprehensive video that should be a big help with a new pup.

Great DVD! I like that the puppies in the video don't always respond to commands the first time and actually act like puppies. The video quality is clearly from the 90's, but the content is the only quality that really counts. I would recommend this video to anyone that wants to train their puppy to retrieve when it gets older.

Good starter video.

Waste of money; a starter DVD that does not even teach stay?

This was very informative about starting your puppy at a young age instead of waiting until they are 8+ months which I believed was the norm for training a dog. My black lab puppy is just 3 months old and she is healing, retrieving, fetching, sitting and laying down. Just from a few minutes a day. She is constantly looking at me trying to understand what I am teaching her, and that will come in handy when I start training her on technical training.

Great DVD. One of the few realistic DVD's where they actually show the puppy being a puppy and not doing everything she commands on the first try, which we all know doesn't happen.

Very good for beginners.

Great puppy introduction video. Thank you for offering it. Look forward to future purchases from you.

Not what I was expecting. All she tries to teach you is basic things everyone knows how to do. Not worth the money.

So far so good. Just starting, but looks like it should help a lot.

Begins the training early and logically setting up a solid foundation. Great for beginners new to training a retriever.

I have had lots of puppies in my life, and 12-week-old Kep is my fifth golden over the years. But Jackie Mertens' DVD has given me lots of useful tips. She's taught this old dog some new tricks!

It is decent (a little dated). I'm not sure it lived up to my expectations though... especially for $40!

Somewhat dated material. There are better puppy ob and intro to field work videos out now. Such as hillman's new series.

Excellent product! Highly Recommend!!

very good dvd for getting training started. My dog trainer recommends it to all his clients for the first 6mnths. great dvd and very easy to follow !

This video has a lot to offer. It covers training from the day you bring pup home up to the start of OB. Very good video. I am very pleased I purchased it.

Compared to videos produced by the likes of George Hickox and Shawn Dustin, the Mertens video is fair at best. I did like the fact that the video showed mistakes by the dogs used in the training demos. On the other hand, the number of people shown assisting in the training exercises is not realistic for a single trainer. Also, not enough detail in the \"whys\" of dog training. For a new trainer, instruction must be step by step, with lots of detail.

this was a good video, but I wish it would have concentrated more on "puppy" training than starting in field work. I purchased it for a friend who just got a new pup and was hoping for more "obedience/basic" type training than the marking/field concepts. Still it has some useful information and may spark his interest in field work.

This is a very good video for teaching the basic concepts that hunting or competition dogs will need later as well as for exposing puppies to different stimuli. The video states that it's for a dog's first year. In actuality, it's good until a pup is about six months-old. At that point, it fits in well with a solid program like Mike Lardy's "Total Retriever Training" and "Total Retriever Marking." I strongly recommend "Sound Beginnings" to build drive and confidence as well as to lay the foundation for more advanced work later.

Excellent! Best puppy head start program perfect for first time trainer. Every puppy ought to come home with this DVD.

Simple and sound. Wish we all had facilities like theirs

Very informative and easy to follow.

Great resource. I highly recommend it for beginners and experienced trainers alike.

The video was very helpful

This video goes over a lot of different things that you can do during the early puppy phases. The one thing I didn't like about it was it didn't really go into detail on how to do the training exercises. And they didn't really show the progression of the dog from day 1 - completion.

Excellent DVD, I recommend it and Gun Dog Supply to all my puppy purchasers (>100 families in the lat three years).

This DVD is very helpful and highly recommended by my Pro Trainer.

Overall ok. It really is beginning video. I only saw the first video.

Good comprehensive DVD about the basics of preparing your puppy for training