I can seem to upload a photo of her, but I have a 5 month old black lab named Winchester (Win for short) that I have some questions about. She has taken to everything I've taught her like it was completely natural and from the litter she came from I'm more than impressed with her. The first question I had was when we are playing fetch, I make her sit and watch, then she goes and gets it no problem but when she brings it back she doesn't wanna drop it. She wants to play tug o war, and I don't want to have to play tug out in the field or in the duck blind. Any tips on how to break that habit would be more than appreciated!
Offer a tasty treat, she'll open her mouth to eat the treat, take the toy at the same time. Praise hard.
Be careful not to make a game out of tugging from her mouth or chasing her, which is a game to her. Try a second ball or treats to get her to drop it and also work on her "drop" cue, not just during fetch but at home too.
At five months, I'd still be using toys for retrieving games, and not making it too formal. There's nothing wrong with having a game of tug as the reward for bringing the item back, and you don't want to be in too much of a hurry to get it off her, or she could start playing keep-away. It's easy to make the distinction between objects that are for playing with and objects that are for formal retrieves, which you never play tug with, so don't be afraid that tugging with a toy will make your dog want to tug with dummies or game. Teach a strong "give" apart from the retrieve chain, and then back-chain it in. If you don't understand what that means, ask and I'll type it up - but don't want to type it all if you already know
Thanks, I will try that. Do you have any advices or an easy place to start working on blind retrieving with her?
Yeah, don't yet. She's far too young There are other, far more experienced people on here who can chip in (and I'd advise you to listen to them over me if they contradict me!) @heidrun @bbrown @Karen, to name a few. Personally, these are some of the things I would work on before introducing blinds: Getting a rock-solid retrieve on marks, extending the distance. Stop whistle. Hunt whistle. Directional control, including three-handed casting. A "clock face" of dummies, lining the dog up to individual dummies to ensure they can follow a line. Simple to more complex memory retrieves. I'm sure there are many more exercises the others will suggest. When you are ready to introduce blinds, a simple way is to enlist a helper. Have them throw a dummy which your dog marks. Send the dog and, whilst she is bringing it back, have them place another in the same spot. Send the dog again - she should have the confidence to follow the line as she's just done it. Here's an article on one of our sister websites about using transition blinds: http://totallygundogs.com/retriever-training-transition-blinds/ You might like to follow the link in the article to read about permanent blinds, too.
