Hard mouth

N

Normstorm

New member
How do I teach my 5 month old to have a soft mouth? Does great with the bumper with a wing strapped to it. A real bird she rips it a part.
 
She might stop the older she gets at 5 months she is still pretty young. They make some harness things for quail and pigeons that have some studs on them keeps the dogs from really biting down.
 
What HE ^ said; or frozen pigeons--over and over again, high praise, no disciplining, for fifteen minute sessions, then quit. Treats only a few minutes after the sessions are done.

At 5 months, is a puppy, she will learn. When I first got Mick from ABRescue, that night I heard some rustling in the kitchen, turns out he was investigating the recycle bag.

He trotted into the dining room carrying a light bulb in his mouth. Scared the bejezus out of me. He only did it that one time, but had to be taught to retrieve wild birds with the frozen pigeon method.

It's not hard, just be more stubborn than the dog, and never get mad at her.

Best wishes.

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As long as you keep giving her birds, you are teaching her that it is okay to rip them apart. At 5 months, she is cutting teeth so it is a poor time to give her birds anyway. Focus on obedience for now, and once her teeth are all in you can begin force fetch.
 
get a round hairbrush and have her fetch that
 
BritChaser said:
get a round hairbrush and have her fetch that
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Grasp lower jaw with a leather gloved hand.. palm down in the mouth thumb under bottom of jaw while saying hold. It will take awhile for her not to try and spit out the hand but will eventually accept your hand. Make sure she holds your hand in your mouth calmly before progressing to birds. I also introduce some bird scent in the glove after she has started to accept the glove Then when a bird is retrieved hold the bird in her mouth while saying hold - keep on a short check cord so you can reel her in quickly if she starts to mouth the bird. You could slip in the bumper/wing between the glove and the bird
 
Your getting a lot of advice. Please ignore most of it. You have a 5 month old puppy who is teething. They get a very sore mouth during this time, which is why pro trainers hold off force fetch until all the teeth are in. Please don't give a teething pup a wire hair brush. That is about the most ignorant thing you could do to a puppy.
 
Lots of things can lead to hard mouth. The bumpers you use (I have gone away from knobby ones), taking a bumper away to quickly, taking a bird away to quickly, too many retrieves, the way you give a dog a treat (use an open hand not fingers), playing tug of war, using quail with a young puppy (use tough birds), using nasty birds (always use fresh killed), too many birds for a pup (once a week is more than enough), giving too many before force fetch, giving birds when teething, and the list goes on. But just like gun shyness, a hard mouth dog is generally the result of poor training and handling. Your the teacher, the dog learns it's behavior from you.
 
I'm no expert. But one thing that seems to have worked for me relates to taking the dummy/toy away too quickly as mentioned above. I don't force fetch my dogs, but I do "hold" conditioning (although not intensive). Teaching them to calmly sit there & hold an item & calmly drop/give it seems to improve their willingness to not play keep away & to give something up without destroying it. But for the time being, she's a puppy. Puppies play with everything & chew everything. Good luck!
 
I have worked with Chesapeake Bay Retrievers (notorious for hard mouth) for 25 years. I wouldn't worry about. David is right about your dog still being a puppy. Just don't let her fetch fresh birds for a while. She's going to chew on whatever she can until those adult teeth are in place. Then the gloved hand trick Citori16 told you about is all I have ever needed.
 
I agree, puppies at my house at 6-7 weeks old will tear a wing or a bird apart. That shows me drive more than a hard mouth. Let the pup be a pup. Use frozen birds if you want to use real birds or feathers. They can't tear those apart, but they may still clamp down when you try to take it away.
 
Fox Walker said:
I have worked with Chesapeake Bay Retrievers (notorious for hard mouth) for 25 years. I wouldn't worry about. David is right about your dog still being a puppy. Just don't let her fetch fresh birds for a while. She's going to chew on whatever she can until those adult teeth are in place. Then the gloved hand trick Citori16 told you about is all I have ever needed.
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The glove works great to teach them how to hold softly. I do it while watching TV with him in my lap as soon as he comes home from the kennel. Only takes a couple of minutes per session
 
david0311 said:
Again you are not dealing with hard mouth in this situation!
Gatzby..can you chime in hear please??
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Oh heck I've been trying hard to avoid giving internet dog training advice.
When I was training my first "real" competition/gundog the little bastard would fly out and grab the bumper and shoot back to me like a rock star. Probably over half the time he would have the bumper by the rope. I went to my mentor (a VERY well respected HT pro) very worried that my 5 month old second coming of Christ was destined for failure because he played around with the bumper. The advice he gave me was let him be a pup, and if the rope thing bothers me so damn much cut the Fing rope off.
You do not have a hardmouth issue, sounds like you have prey drive! My advice is let him be a pup, but limiting birds might be smart till you have a solid recall and a trained retrieve.
 
Alot of great advice above. Don't worry about it. At one time I demanded a flawless retrieve. I thought force breaking was a must. As I get older, I would rather see a natural retrieve most of the way back. That being said sometimes force fetch is necessary. I figure if after 2 or 3 years and a couple hundred birds, if they are mangling/eating or losing birds force break them. I have also had dogs that looked like they were tearing a bird to pieces but were really just rolling it around in their mouth. My current pup is bird crazy, she will blast out to a bird pick it up throw it around some then take off with it. I keep telling myself, keep your cool don't scream or chase her, it's not her fault its mine. Inside GRRRRRR..
 
Love the advice, my first pup. She’s been awesome so far. Any books to read for upland hunting training for both her and I would be awesome to get some suggestions.
 
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