Not easy to explain but here goes . Sam is absolutely passionate about retrieving , he gets so excited that he shakes in anticipation when he knows its about to happen . He never fails to return to me but his actual method of getting the ball/dummy is a bit rough, he finds is easily enough , loves it when he is forced to hunt for it and when he locates it, he does a sort o jump then a dive onto it before picking it up and coming back to me . The result of this diving is that in woodland and rocky areas , he has actually worn a patch of hair on his chest , thats how hard he dives at times . Although I dont worry too much about his execution being perfect , I dont want him to end up with a bald patch, its just pure exhuberance, but I`m not sure how to cure it, if I can ? In more open areas, he will go for the ball/dummy and do this dive and slide, no wonder he is going a bit thin on his chest :
Re: Diving on the retrieve Can't offer anything useful I'm afraid, but if it's any consolation, Lady not only dives on the dummy, she does a complete summersault over it. As you say it's just total exuberance. All I can add is that when she retrieves a real bird she doesn't do it. She runs up at full pelt but stops, circles it then picks it up very gently by the body. So work that out. Maybe Sam would be the same although bare chested.
Re: Diving on the retrieve Do you always throw the dummy or ball? I find that the throwing and consequent bouncing and rolling of ball/dummy really revs them up, hence the shaking in excitement. I would try lots of memory retrieves where you place the dummy rather than throw it, heel Sam away, turn around and sit him up and then send him for the retrieve.
Re: Diving on the retrieve Thank you both , I will try the placing Heidrun, it might just steady him up a bit
