Most first-time retriever puppy buyers "read the directions" and do a good job of introducing their youngsters to retrieving, to the sit and come commands, to water, and maybe even to birds.

Most beginners do quite well in introducing their puppies to retrieving.

Not infrequently by the time the pup is four months old, he's doing 80-yard retrieves in the park and 40-yarders in the park pond. But many beginners forget to introduce their puppies to cover.

This is especially true among people who live in large cities, where the only nearby cover is in the typically too-well-manicured rough on the golf course. Just getting out into the country where real cover is available might take a 30- to 60-minute drive. Somehow that drive just never happens.

At least not until the neophyte joins the local retriever club and takes his, say, six-month-old Super-Puppy to a club training session.

Most do well in introducing their puppies to water.

Here's what can happen, at least to the more competitive beginner. Our hero watches several other puppies of similar ages do a 50-yard single mark on land, in moderate cover. It looks quite simple, even too simple, so he insists on running Super-Puppy on it right away.

He even asks that the "guns" move out another 50 yards, but cooler heads insist that he do the shorter one first. Agreeing reluctantly, he takes Super-Puppy to the line, signals for a throw, and sends S-P.

S-P takes off most impressively, but stalls out as he enters the cover a few yards from the line. S-P's body language is screaming, "Hey, what is this stuff? It smells funny and I can't see where I'm going." He returns to our greatly embarrassed hero, who sends him again.

"Now you get out there and find that bird, damn it!" And again. "Hey, what's the matter with you?" And again. "Get back! Fetch up that bird!" And so on until, furious, he picks S-P up, flings him into his car, and spins rubber as he leaves. Chances are he will never return. Pity. If he had first introduced S-P to cover, the otherwise well-prepared youngster would surely have made our hero proud at that club training session.

The above is, of course, a worst-case scenario. But many more cautious beginners suffer lesser embarrassments every year. So here's how you should introduce your puppy to cover and thereby avoid such un-pleasantries.

Prerequisites
You should start exposing your new puppy to cover as soon as he accepts you as his benevolent boss, knows his name, and gets your drift when you say "No." If you were still a stranger to him, he might wander off in cover and get lost. Fortunately, if he is properly bonded with you, you've necessarily already taught him his name and "No." With those two words, you can control him adequately during his initial romps afield.