Won't retreive

[Mike L]

Hi guys ? My son has a chocolate lab, 2yrs old. Lots of drive and a teriffic hunter. We started her out on pheasants, and it took a couple times but now she picks em up with no problem. Last week-end he shot a goose. ( Water retrieve ) river. She went right out on command but didn't even pay attention to it. He did throw it for her when he got it o shore and for a couple hrs at home , but she would not pick it up. Just put her mouth on it and then acted like she wanted to eat it. (In his words) I told him not to worry about it. No 1. it was her first water retrieve on waterfowl. And waterfowl are differant than pheasants, the feathers and stuff. I just told him, to work with her and have some patience. More than likley I will have to do it as I have done most of her training anyway and been the lead instructor per say. So was my advice correct ? And what kind of tips can you guys give me. I hope this post is in the right area as there are so many.

[Jumpshootin']

Get yourself a training book or video for hunting retrievers and put her through forced hold & force fetch. A dog properly trained in this manner will fetch any object that you tell it to and hold it until hell freezes over.

[NATTY BUMPO]

Jumpshootin' is correct. The dog needs to be force broken to retrieve. There are any number of books and videos out there on how to do this. Its a process that needs to be taken step-by-step in order to suceed. A force broken dog will retrieve anything that you tell him to fetch.

Natty B.