Lab will not bring it back

[fisher]

My 7 and 1/2 month old lab will not pick up the bumper and bring it back. I have been working on force fetch and getting him to hold the bumper. He will sit tell I release him when I throw it. He just plays with it in the snow. When I call him back he will come back and sit with out the bumper. I have done lots of training and just thought this would pass and he would Just get it.

In the summer he just pick it up and brought it back half the time but I was no doing much training then. So he had it right at one time.

Any one have any ideas for me? How can I train him to pick it up and Bring it back like he should?

Also I am a new member of Four Points Retriever Club. I just sent in my first dues on Monday and am look foreword to meeting some a the guys and hang with some dog people.

thanks

Jeff Krop

[fisher]

I just got this Email back from the ather of the training book that I use I think its the right was to go. I just wanted to post this to see what you think and show how good of a book

TRAINING THE POINTING LAB is and how helpful they are

Jeff, if you are going through hold and even force fetch and your dog quits retrieving the bumper, then quit throwing it for a while. There may be some resentment issues about being made to do something with it, so he understandably isn’t going to run and pick it up and bring it back to you because that might bring more of what he isn’t enjoying. Do you work, skip the retrieves until he masters the hold or force fetch. He’ll relax and begin to retrieve again…

Make sense?

Julie

[MinnesotaMongo]

Let me preface this by saying I am by no means an expert - just a man with a similar experience. I had a Springer pup that wasn't very interested in retrieving - but came from great stock. One day, when I was with some trial guys, they flipped out a clip wing pigeon - and it was like a light went on. He played and pushed at it a bit, then picked it up and brought it to me. From then on it grew each day - and now he's a retrieving machine.

Maybe he needs to know his "special purpose" (with apologies to the movie "The [PoorWordUsage]) in life.

Good luck bud!

[LABS4ME]

If you are truley forcing your dog...

#1 DO NOT include any retrieves during the force fetch. NEVER! The dog needs to focus 100% of his mind on the 'conditioned retrieve'. Throwing bumpers will undo all that you are teaching him. You have plety of time in your's and his life to work on retrieving, which will be a whole new story to him if properly forced.

#2 Are you sure he is through all his teething? Some dogs are done by 7 months, but be sure... you'd be fighting an uphill battle if he's teething and you are working on forcing him... generally I start FF at 8-9 months old.

#3 At this stage forced or not, he will be a little rebellious. It's no different than a teenage stage. Teach one thing at a time and move to the next.

#4 Do not mix birds into the early stages of the force routine... you may really end up with a mess. That too will come, but it's down the road. In fact I won't even use bumpers when teaching the 1st stages of force fetch. Use a training barbell or a thick wooden dowel... No need to sour him on something he should love...

Hope you get it all worked out... pick your new club member's minds... Re-read any force fetch material you have. Make a plan on paper and check off each level as he completes it... then and only then move onto the next level.

Good Luck!

Ken

[tealitup]

Can someone tell me what exactly is force fetching?

[duckbuster]

If you go back page after page after page you will come across quite a few topics/threads on the subject.

GOOD LUCK!!!!