Need Advice

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Blacklab32

New member
Hi all, new to the site but I'm in need of some advice. I have a 4 year old black lab that is a great pheasant hunting dog, couldn't ask for better. Until recently she would deliver the birds right to me, but now she is dropping them a few feet away and then going back to hunting. I've never taught her the hold command so I was wondering if that would be something to do to fix the issue before we lose a wounded bird or is there something else I should try? Thanks for any advise.
 
If you haven't tried low stress remedies yet. I would suggest

1. Crouch down, hand out, no eye contact and call the dog to you. This Makes you less intimidating.

2. Walk away from the dog, no eye contact, while calling dog to you with hand held out behind. Sometimes the desire to follow you is enough to get the dog to comply.

3. Every time you begin to hunt, sit the dog down next to you, then give it a command to hunt, then he is not deciding when to hunt on his own. Most Spaniel guys use something like "Hie On"!, but you could say "bowling shoes" and the dog is indifferent. Don't let him go back to hunting until he has finished his last job.

4. Don't use an e collar to try to "fix" this behavior, keep it positive.

5. Others will propose "force fetch", my thoughts on that are well-known, but others have good luck with it.
 
Your first step is to revisit/refresh your recall command. "Here" or "come" means all the way and wait until I release you. Simply polishing that up may stop this because she thinks she doesn't have to wait for you to tell her to continue hunting.

If that cures it, Great! If she keeps dropping at your feet after a perfect recall, you could teach "hold" after the season or you could complete a full force fetch program.... oooorrrrr you could accept it as a quirk and move on.
 
X2 Fix recall first
 
At this stage in the game I'd wait until season is over and teach her "hold". Save back a couple birds do work with her on this with.
 
mnaj_springer said:
Your first step is to revisit/refresh your recall command. "Here" or "come" means all the way and wait until I release you. Simply polishing that up may stop this because she thinks she doesn't have to wait for you to tell her to continue hunting.

If that cures it, Great! If she keeps dropping at your feet after a perfect recall, you could teach "hold" after the season or you could complete a full force fetch program.... oooorrrrr you could accept it as a quirk and move on.
Click to expand...

Agree with this 100%
 
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