Need advice on training a black lab

[Mr. B]

I have a 5 month old black lab that I am trying to train to duck hunt. I am having problem getting her to retreive. I know she is young so I have not been pushing her to hard. She loves the water and if you throw the dummy in the water she will retrieve all day. But when I throw it on land and tell her to go and get it she looks at me like I am nuts. Does any one have any tips for this or any toher training advice?

Thanks
Mr. B

[Long Gray Line]

Have you tried attaching a bird wing to the dummy when you're tossing it around? I did this with mine and she wouldn't leave the dummy alone. I also had her on a check cord all the time so that I could "retrieve" her once she went to get the dummy. I just reeled her in while repeating fetch and it didn't take all that long before fetch meant bring it to me. Fetch doesn't have to be 20 yards or longer, 5 yards works fine starting a young dog. You're right on the money with keeping sessions short and interesting. They're just like little kids and have short attention spans. I didn't let her decide when we were done though. I would have her do whatever we were doing (heal, sit, whatever) 3/4/5 times right (on the check cord) and then we were done. We finished on a good positive note almost all of the time. Two or three 5 minute sessions a day seemed to be far more effective than longer sessions and they didn't try my patience either! My lab is 15 months and she still goes on the check cord from time to time. Remember, teach - don't test when you work together and have fun!!

[WALLEYENUTZ]

Try throwing the training dummy in shallow water and slowly work your way to dry ground. And/or, while standing in shallow water throw it on dry ground. If that doesn't work, try getting her as excited as you can for the dummy and then throw very short retrieves.

good luck

[WALLEYENUTZ]

don't forget she is very young.

[Mr. B]

Because she is so young I have been trying to keep it fun and interesting. We do not train for very long so she does not get bored with it. For the most part I let her decide when we are done (not sure if this is a good habit to start or not).

Thanks for the advice.

[Ozzy169]

Force fetching might be another alternative, my dog fetches the bumper anywhere, but only retrives birds on water, he's going to school after the early goose season.

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Get 'er done

[Guest]

She will turn around, it takes time. Patience and maintaining a pattern will help her learn the way.
I had it easy with my first (and only) lab. At three months of age he was out fetching and obeying commands better than a professionally trained lab that was over a year old. Heck at 9 weeks we were in the park retrieving his first small dummy.

Your dog is not too young to retrieve. Start small and go from there. Retrieves at small distances at first and orient the dog to what you want it to do.

Plan on training your dog for no more than 10 minutes a day, each session. Their attention spans are very short.

Give the dog plenty of praise and if he/she won't fetch, lead the way with them attached to a leash and show them what you want them to do. However, don't do the work for her. She needs to figure it out and just be creative. She will catch on sooner than you think. All dogs respond differently.

Good luck!

[BLACKJACK]

Mr. B, you've gotten some good advice, keep the sessions short, stop before they get tired and want to stop, work with them every day, at first throw the dummies on your lawn, not into long grass. You said that she'd retrieve in water but not on land. I've had the opposite problem where they were timid going into the water, I'd throw the dummy along the edge of shallow water, before they knew it they were swimming. Do the same thing, put on your hip boots, do some water retrieves, throw some along the edge, pretty soon do some land retrieves. Give lots of praise when she gets back. Get her excited.

Good luck!

[Mr. B]

Thanks for all the information. I hope I am on my way.

[duckbuster]

A couple of good books to read would be GUN DOG and WATER DOG by DL Walters. Use the check cord for the 1st couple of years just continue to shorten the lead. This way she will know your long arm is there to reach out and grab her. GOOD LUCK and GOOD HUNTING

[Fisher Dave]

My lab has some *unique* problems that I have never been able to get out of him, and not sure how to. He loves to retrieve birds .. land, water doesnt matter. The problem I have is he doesnt watch for birds and has a 5 min attention span .. if he's not doing something .. he will take a nap. That problem isnt as bad as the other... the dog loves the water but is afraid to jump out of the boat. I use a step and that helps some .. but that can be an experience too. As bad as that sounds .. he is actually a good retriever, at least I dont have to worry about him jumping out of the boat before its time I guess.

Anybody have any ideas or heard of problems like this ? Or how to change it? He has never hunted with other dogs .. I figured that could help.

[Rainman]

Fisher, start out with your boat on dry land, get him to jump in and out by himself. After he gets used to that, set the boat on shore and work with him on jumping out in just a few inches of water and go from there. take it slow. My dog was the same way, now the bastard wants to jump out of the boat evey time I make a cast when we go fishing. He did it again yesterday in 18' of water.

Rainman

[Fisher Dave]

Rainman ...

I have actually done that .. often the duck boat is *beached* where the water is maybe 3" deep. The dog carefully steps out of the boat and then is off to the races.

The dog is afraid of heights of any kind. My last house had stairs you could see through the back side and the dog wouldnt go up them for a month.

I think its a lost cause unless I can get him on the water every day... tough when you live in the city.

Might be time to come up with some type of catapult...

[Rainman]

Fisher, I might add that a piece of carpet on the bottom of the boat might help a lot to. My dog didn't like the bare metal under his feet either, I think it was to slippery I'm guessing! Doesn't hurt to try.

Rainman