hard for a novice to know....need benchmarks.

D

dottie

New member
Suggestions or comments please....it is very hard for a novice to know/understand if he is doing things right(if training is progressive as it should) I really have no benchmarks with which to judge.

My Brittany is learning to retrieve. I did not ff. He is 100% on retrieves (on land) and with limited distractions. However I am not sure what distractions to try. Today in the house I attempted to proof his retrieve by leaving a piece of chicken in his return path (is this even fair or wise)????? *
He will also fetch the paper and a beer from the refrigerator.
I would like to teach him to pick up his own toys and return them to his toy box. ( had a ESS that would return toys....and never messed up her retrieving, but every dog is different. I would also like to work with him on finding and retrieving the tv remote,my keys.ect.

Question:

How and when do I know..... IF ......I can relax the formal nature of my retrieve training?

How do I proof his retrieving.
 
Hey Dottie...:D

I think you are kind of veering off the "hunting aspects" of the forum. (And GREAT work on fetching a beer, by the way)

Might I suggest you just relax a bit on training the (2 y/o?) pup? You are doing fine, although I must say I think the chicken is cruel and unusual punishment. :)

I think we can help with hunt training, but getting the dog to put its toys away is something I could not even teach my daughters when they were growing up.

The pup is fetching birds and doing well on it. The rest? Well, kind of out of our province, I think.

Finding the remote and keys? I'm thinking you want a butler or a maid, Dottie.

Have fun. Best wishes. :thumbsup:
 
Kismet...love the line "can't teach my daughters to put away their toys"!!

This dog sounds like a pet in training for the circus. Would suggest having the dog find a bird deep in cattails on a blind retrieve. Not sure the rest is very important.
 
Testing him is more than likely setting him up for failure. You want to condition him to retrieve. In my opinion, to do the things you are wanting to do would be best accomplished through a solid force fetch program. To train a dog you need to follow a program. Not just throw together pieces of training advice from hunters on this site. Pick a program and stay with it. What better way to teach a dog to retrieve than through a program established by a retriever pro versus a forum made up of pointing, flushing, and retriever dog owners.

You can't really condition him for what may occur in a hunting situation with the way you are going about it. When a problem arises when hunting, how are you going to reinforce the fetch command. Asking questions on this forum will only get you suggestions and opinions. You need to seek advice from a pro or a training group and observe others. If you would like I could scan and copy some of my Lardy articles on Force Fetch. For $25 you could buy the fowl dogs DVD. Both methods are very similar.

Not to be insulting but you are all over the place on what you are doing. If you are confusing us, how do you expect the dog to understand what you want to accomplish?

Here is a link to some good dog training articles from Dobbs. I used to read these articles all the time when I first started training. They were very helpful for a novice like me.
 
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Distractions

I would focus on "hunting related challenges". Someone already mentioned training for blind retrieves. I would also work on training for multiple retrieves (making sure the dog is not dropping the initial bird to go and get the second one). If you have not done so already, you can work with multiple dogs in field to ensure he is still trying to retrieve and not giving up the retrieve to another dog.
If you don't already know how to do the above items then we are back to the top and you will have to go out and get a DVD and pick up on a program to work with.

I think you can see where this is headed. Either way, good luck.

P.S. I just tried to have my dog get me a beer and he drank the damn thing before he got back to me. Damn German dogs and their thirst for a good Pilsner :D
 
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I would stay the course. Keep doing exactly what you have been doing. It is working. Training a teenager is a daunting task. Do this almost daily for the rest of his life.

I do not force fetch. I start training at 8 weeks. They retrieve because it makes big dog happy. Right now Champ is staring at the back of my head. She wants to retrieve.

She had one of the top five retrieves of my life this year. I did not know a ditch of water was between the dead rooster and me. She fell through the ice. If she would drop the rooster, she could easily break through the thin ice and get out. She would never do that. When I reached her, she extended her neck and gave me the bird. Perfect breast. Not a mark on it.

My problem is how to watch television without her trying to force me to throw her bumper with her evil eyes.
 
Dottie, IMO you should heed the advice from Evan Graham on the other forum. You cannot proof something that has not become a strict expectation. But you don't have to proof anything if you are satisfied with the results you have.
 
Have you started using the command "dead bird?"

This command is often used when the dog didn't see a bird go down, especially in front of a non-dog hunter, that crippled a bird or can't locate a downed bird.

This fits into the "blind retrieve" program. I frequently use this command in the field, especially with big hunting groups with few dogs and heavy cover.

Hide a dummy in the house during the winter...fun for the dog and he learns the command. Seems to work for me....
 
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