I have a 10 month working lab dog who was dropping every retrieve so I followed the clicker retrieve program and he is excellent in the house, I can hide the dummy and he's happy to retrieve. BUT now I'm trying outside he will do a couple of retrieves and after that he doesn't want to pick up the dummy (canvas training dummy), it's as if he doesn't like it once it is wet and muddy, I can't find any hard standing area so have to use a grass patch. I'm using meat treats, chicken & steak and have cut down on his kibble so he is hungry. HELP needed please
Hi and welcome to the forum. I'd try with different articles if he doesn't want to pick up the canvas dummy. A ball, a toy, a plastic or wooden dumbbell etc. Once the skill has been learned with objects he's happier to pick up, you an reintroduce the dummy. Pop over to introductions and tell us a little more about your dog
My dog isn't keen on a dirty dummy - I can understand that, I wouldn't want a mouthful of mud either! He'll pick it up ok, and bring it back but you can tell he'd rather a clean dummy, thanks very much! For a tiny pup, 10 weeks old, I'd just try somewhere that the dummy stays clean until he is really 'into' his retrieving. Loads of time later, when he is really keen, to get over the small problem of mud on the dummy. The plastic dummies stay a bit cleaner than the canvas ones, I find.
Hi Tina, when you move the clicker retrieve routine from house to outdoors, that is quite a big change for the dog, and some dogs need you to review the process outside as though you were starting from scratch. It seems to be a confidence thing rather than an objection to the state of the dummy, though it will help if you can keep it relatively free of mud etc to begin with So for example, try putting the dummy on the grass, and just click and treat the dog for looking at it, then touching it, and work your way to picking it up and dropping it, then picking it up and putting it in your hand, just like you did indoors. It'll be much quicker than first time around, but for some dogs this is a stage you need to go through and it is worth spending a few sessions on. People worry that if they click and treat the dog for dropping its a backward step, but with clicker training you can always build back up to where you were before. I had to do this with my younger cocker, and again with introducing game. I Hope that makes sense.
