In the not too distant future (and for the fun of it rather than actually working) I'd like to do some gun dog training with our pup Jessie who's 6 months old (she's from working line) - and hope to find a local trainer that will help us. In the here and now, my older lab, Sasha, will retrieve all day long but my younger lab, Lucy, isn't interested at all!! Because of Lucy, I've been really cautious with Jessie and followed the guidelines of only giving her a couple of retrieves at a time, just a couple of times a week. I'd describe her as moderately interested - if I occasionally try more retrieves you can tell by number 4/5 she's losing enthusiasm. She's chasing the dummy (that's the only thing I've used) and more or less bringing it back to me. My question is - now she's 6 months old, should I be trying to move her training on? - but given her interest level, how should I do this? Any advice would be great - thank you!
My Shadow was not a natural retriever, and had to have his enthusiasm bolstered by playing lots of games. A good one it eh puppy switch retrieve, which is high energy. You stand with two dummies, jiggly them around and get your puppy excited, then throw one to your left, letting the pup chase after it. Once she picks it up, encourage her back and, as soon as she gets close, start jiggling the other one you have in your hand. This should encourage her to drop the first one, and then you throw that second one to your right. Pick the first one up, rinse and repeat. Stop the game after a few goes, while the pup still wants more. Don't ask for any steadiness at this stage, because it can make it all a bit boring and/or stressful for the pup, and steadiness is pretty easy to train later on (at least, I've found it to be, with my very limited skills!). Other games like ping-pong recall will help, as well, as they're high energy and the dog gets used to running away from you and back towards you. Just make sure you only do a few reps each time, because you have to be careful of her young joints. If you still want to do more regular retrieves, make sure you're rewarding her with something really high value for her. I've found with my two that rewarding with a chase of a ball makes the behaviours themselves far more exciting than food alone - even though they are very food motivated - so I use the ball as a jackpot.
