GSP likes retreiving but does'nt do well retreiving birds.

[DIESELDAN]

I have a 3 year old gsp that retreives a bumper or ball pretty good, but does'nt like retreiving birds. I hunt both ducks and phesants so I took her with opening ducks, when I knocked down a woodie she swam up to it sniffed it and swam back. Of course my buddie says "thats not a duck dog thats a phesant dog". I agree that a gsp is more of a upland dog but would also like her to retreive birds wether they be ducks or phesants. What is my best training method to get her to retreive birds? What I've done so far is duck tape two duck wings to her bumper and she would'nt retreive it at first but after I let my little 16 week old 1/2 lab 1/2 golden retreiver retreive the bumper and get tons of praise she started retreiving the bumper pretty good. Then I tried a big canada goose wing no bumper she did'nt like that either unless the little "golden lab" was out there is my best plan just repetition with that wing and bumper and hope she gets used to birds? Also could it have anything to do with waterfowl scent I've heard some dogs don"t like the smell of waterfowl, or is that just b.s. Any advise or tips or tricks would be apperaceated thanx DieselDan

[gspman]

If you want a non slip retriever I'd do the trained retrieve.

[Acemac]

stop throwing a ball. who cares if the dog retrives a ball work with birds then move to easy retrives in the water. really got to just go back to the basics.

my 6 months old FBS would not retrive at all untill i took ALL of her toys away she was so excited to get to play with something she started retriving in about a week.

[Farmboy1]

Start with a dummy with a wing on it, then progress to a frozen bird. Make her retrieve it.

To start make sure the dog knows what you want it to do. Work on basics of retreiving. Check cord, choke chain, dummy. Throw bird, give fetch command, make dog bring it back to you. Pull her in if you need to. Repeat. Progress to a dummy with wings on it. Then to a dead bird.

This is the very beginning to a force fetch training. There is a difference between playing and work. The dog needs to know this. When the work is done, then they get to play.

[leech~~]

I had a buddy that raised them, great in the field but we had to throw a few of them over board to go after Ducks! Like others have said you have to get her to want to work for you by getting her excited about Ducks. She's a little older to start on something new if you haven't worked her much on them but keep it up over and over she will get it.

[bopper4]

I did the force fetching with both of my gsp's and they will retreive anything asked. As far as not being a waterfowl dog....my dogs will swim and retreive until they are blue in the face.