Come after Retrieve

[Yellows My Color]

My yellow labs is 6.5 months old and within the last month has decided that she will not bring a bumper or bird to me. She thinks that it is great to stay just out of reach. She has a great drive to retrieve but its not much fun to try to get the bumpers form her. She is very sensitive and i dont want to get all up in her grill and do more harm than good.

any suggestions would be great.

[Curly]

I would think that using a check cord should solve the problem, when she picks up the bumper start pulling her back and calling come as you are pulling.

Good Luck

[marine_man]

It seems like a lot of dogs go through this right around this age...

As curly said, a check cord should alleviate the problem... especially during training.

The other option is to formalize here with an e-collar, presuming the dog knows what come, or here (which is what I use) means...

marine_man

[Bushwacker]

My two year old female went through the same thing at that age. There is a lot going on with teething and growing at that age that makes it tough to train, especially with retrieving work. They really have a mind of their own at that stage. We collar conditioned mine at that age and that did the trick. Now is the time when you have to teach her that life is not just all about fun. Up to now it was, but now she has to do some work and you are the boss. A buddy once said it like this, a lab starts out like your baby, then turns into you employee, and when it all comes together, a lab becomes your partner.

[Yellows My Color]

Thanks for all of the good suggestions. I want to use a E-Collar but this is my first lab and i dont want to be to hard on her. I am what you would call a green horn when it comes to dog training so I dont want to over do it, because i have heard of people over doing it and abusing the collar. Are there signs to look for or is it best to just start slow and not set the bar to high

[WaveWacker]

Before you get real serious about retrieving I would make sure that you have the basics nailed down (you may have this already). A 25' - 30' check cord is essential. Heal, sit, stay first then work in the come. With rope attached take the pup into heal and then into sit (you may even whistle signal the sit with one longer blast) then stay. Walk away and give the signal to come. I usally say HERE and then hit the whistle (3-4 quick short blasts) to signal the come. Get this down and then work in a sit/stay and introduce the dummy. Once they go out and get it stay stationary and give your signal to come and gently put pressure on the check cord to get them to come back to you. You may have to beg at them while holding the rope. It will take a while but they will eventually get the idea.

[marine_man]

One other thing you could try if the other option don't work is to turn and run the opposite direction when your dog won't come on your command... the dog will just about always run for you then...

I'd try the check cord method first as it's more of an active training method (I say here, you don't come, I pull on the cord till you get here) then a passive method where you are running away.

One of the golden rules of training is to not issue a command that you can't enforce... therefore I'd try the check cord method first.

marine_man

[BDR]

I like all the check cord suggestions. It helped me alot. Once he had a firm idea of what was expected, what helped was if he did not retrieve to me it was "game over". That worked well because he loved to Play fetch but when he got in that keep away stage, he learned real quick it wasn't as fun to be done so soon.