Lab running with out sniffing

[tracker x-2]

I have a 1 year old pure bred choc. lab. I can play with her at home and drag the dummy around and she will find it and return it. However when i take her afield and tell her to get the bird she runs around like a bat out of he**. She listens when I tell her to come and sit,but she just runs wild. Today I was out and she was running through a fence line and ran square into a old peice of machinery. Luckily she did not get hurt, but what can I do to slow her down. I know shes only a year and has a lot of pup in her yet ,but is there anything to do.

[uplander]

Sounds like a good problem to have. Your dog has alot of drive and that's something thats hard to teach..As long as she stays in gun range I wouldn't do a thing but get her out as much as possible. Don't try to take that hard charge out of her. The more you get her out the more she will start to use her nose. Like you said yourself she is young and you have to take that in stride and let them mature..Believe me as that dog matures you will be glad she has that drive . Good luck and have fun..uplander

[kingr]

A check cord or a training collar are your best bets. I've got a 1 yr old lab as well. Be careful not to take the "fun" out of her first hunts though. But you also have to watch out and keep her safe.

[rattlereel]

It sounds like the time the amish kid went to the amusement park. Way too much going on for him to comprehend at one time. So he is trying to see everything at once.

Get your dog out in new places with tall grass trees and water so when you come upon these in the field they are just someting that they have seen many times before and will be all business.

PS good luck trying to hunt and run a check cord at the same time. When I was at that stage I left my gun in the truck.

[Tom7227]

I had to take my lab out on a dirt road and run him for 3-4 miles at about 15 miles an hour. I usually did that an hour or so before hunting time. That was the only way he'd keep the RPM's low enough for me to keep up with him. I suppose I could have spent a bunch of money on a trainer, but the runs seems to work pretty good.

[Surface Tension]

As long as your keeping him close and under control I don't see a problem.

Hes young and without knowing what you've done with live birds its going to take some time. Hunting is another step in training. Training with live birds in the off season is ideal, If this is new to him its going to take a few encounters for things to start to click in. Because his head is high means nothing and really thats what your looking for. Again there is no good substitute for the live bird training but for now when your out hunting get him where a bird flushed from and verbally get him excited over the scent. He should start working it. The earlier trailing sessions you did with the dummy are good. This would be a good time to throw the dummy. Its that association from whats familiar to something new you capitalize on. Just don't over do it to where he waiting for you to throw the dummy instead of out hunting for it.

Not knowing what you've done so far. I don't like his first retrieves with a fresh dead bird. There is way too much of "new" there. Biggest concern there is a dog that picks feathers, or thinks its a meal.

I'd rather his first introduction to feathers be again associated with something he used to retrieving. Attach a wing to his dummy. You've killed multiple birds with one stone here. Scent, feathers, dummy, retrieve.

Then move on to a whole bird thats been chilled or frozen.

Back to the rambunctious dog. Make him use all that energy at your pace, which is one that allows the dog to work the cover. You'll end up with a dog that learns to quarter.

[311Hemi]

Going off what rattlereel said.....how much time has he seen in the field before she started hunting?

Has she ever been on live birds? Dummy scent is no replacement for that. If she has not been on live birds it may take a while for her to actually figure out what is going on....depending on how much you get out now and how many birds you get her on.

Either way you will need to watch out for her as one time into a barbed wire fence could be very dangerous.