training ?

[bigwegs]

I have a 5 1/2 month old choc. lab. She is extremely smart and is doing great with everything through out our training. The problem comes in with retrieving the dumby on land. She gets excited about doing it for about 3-4 times, and then she seems to get bored with it. When I throw the dumby in the water, she will retrieve it everytime, and cant get enough of it. I have tried everything to try and keep her excited while we are playing with the dumby. (running around, jumping around with her, and ect.) I have tried to attach wings to it, but it makes it worse since she would rather play with it instead of bring it back. Is this normal for a younger lab? Any suggestions to fix this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bigwegs

[SDwalleyes]

I had this very thing with my lab when she was a bit younger. What I ended up doing was not fetching her for 2 or 3 days. Every day I'd get the dummy out and wave it around. It drove her nuts and she really wanted to fetch it, but I didn't throw it. I'd do it again just before I kenneled her up for the night and then I'd set the dummy where she could see it. The next time I let her fetch it, she retrieved for about an hour. (all fetches were on land, since she always retrieved from the water too) My dog is now 11 months old and she won't quit fetching until I get sick of it. Try it, it worked great for me.

Good luck

[LABS4ME]

Keep your training sessions short and sweet with young dogs! Always leave them wanting more... their attention span is that of a 6 year old child... ever watch them play? they do something for 10 minutes and move on to something else. If you make it boring (too many retrieves) it will become a tedious task or "work" to them. 3-4 bumpers a session, a couple times a day is plenty for a 5 1/2 months old.

Good Luck!

Ken

[fwp]

Not an uncommon problem. Many young dogs experience this tendency. Labs was right on with short/keep it fun sessions. Also force breaking will do wonders for this. Giving a young dog to a pro who is good at this is money well spent!

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[Jackpine Rob]

I agree with both SDWallhooters and Labs2Many. Short sessions and laying off training when interest wanes are the easiest ways to avoid the necessity of force-fetching later.

You should know the pup well enough by now to be able to "read" the body language - and stop short of that dreaded retrieve where the pup refuses. One thing not mentioned above is to not let the dog fail - ever! Let's say you toss the dummy into the tall grass, and the pup can't find it - you know he's convincing himself it just ain't there by his dwindling speed and enthusiasm.... Run out and give him a hand - pointing it out and jumping and clapping and such. YEEHAW!! as you race the pup w/dummy in mouth back to the starting place, with plenty of petting and ear ruffling and "gooood boy" mixed in.

In the case of the dreaded refusal, I race out there and get to the dummy ahead of the dog. If dog beats me to it and grabs it, great - trainings over for the day but good deal. If I get there first - dummies go in bag, dog is leashed and led back to kennel, and NO TALKING or punishment or anything else. The old dog had this happen once - I walked him back and kenneled him without talking - put food and water in with no talking - and let him sit for 24 hours. He did the same thing the next day - except refused on the first retrieve. I almost cried, but did the same thing. Worked like a charm. Never had a refusal after that day.