Hi there..I live in Brazil and beeing hunting all my life .. For the first time now I have a 1 year old bitch labrador that was imported last year from one of the best field trial and hunting kennelin Italy, here, this dog until now has retrieved 150 +wood pigeon( our local bird ) shot on the wing or with a PCP since she was 6/7 months old , with lots of drive and enthusiasm , swimming and retrieving dummies ok. Then I took her down south for the 2020 duck season ( july,our winter ) and on day one ,first thing,I shot ,a tree duck just to see how she would handle her first retrieve on water (water was at her belly level )and temperature 55 degres F. Bird was belly up and with his feet pedaling ,dying , ,and unfortunately scratched her nose with his feet nails . I was filming this first retrive and I can see that she started barking at the floating bird , hesitaded but finally brought it back with almost no enthusiasm compared to how she does with pigeons. From this day on , on this trip , she was or retriving ducks holding from the beak or the wing tip or not even going to pick up any duck. During this trip I also threw dummies in many occasions, on deeper water to have her swim to get rid of the mud in order to have a cleaner dog at duck camp, and she was retrieving ok . This situation lasted 4/5 days , went north back home ( 1000 miles) start shooting pigeons again on weekends on dry land ,same nice retrieves at top speed, occasionally throwing dead pigeons on pond nearby, she was swimming like every labrador as usual ,mouthing the whole floating pigeon and retrieving it back with no problem. Then back south again for ducks 1 month later, hoping for a change of attitude ..but things went exactly the same as the former duck hunt, almost no retrive of ducks. Back North again and start shooting pigeons,and as usual, totally commited with the retrieve, as if she were a diferente dog from the marsh . Now duck season is over, have to wait one year , but have to do something about this flaw. Talked to a very competent field trial trainer in Italy ,who is actually working with my dog’s litter sister,( Waterfriend labradors.com), ,and he is absolutely convinced that , the problem was that she ( my dog )got hurt and scared by that first duck. I hope he is right but not totally convinced, this is my first attempt on training labradors , and I could have missed a importante step. He suggests that I start trowing one dead duck on water ,only 2,3 times for session and slowly have her adapting to this size of bird. I appreciate some any guidance and comments Fabio/Brazil
I agree with the trainer about the cause. I think you should simplify the problem and break it down. Have you got a dead duck you can use? Presently, it seems she does not like ducks (since she retrieves other birds and objects in water just fine). I think the trainer is right and she got a fright and it made a big negative impression associated with ducks. If she didn’t like an object such as a towel I would reward for looking at the towel, approaching the towel, touching the towel, rolling on it, picking it up, playing with it, bringing it to me etc. I think you could try that with a dead duck. Instead of duck = scary you want duck = nice things happen or even better, duck = fun! I expect once she gets over duck = unpleasant she'll start holding it correctly in her mouth on her own, but if not you could show her how with the same kind of reward system. After associating duck = reward, try some dead duck fetch on land at home at close distance. Possibly just chuck it like a ball. Keep it fun. Lots of rewards. After a while if she seems enthusiastic repeat in the water at home where you tried the pigeons in the water, maybe even start with pigeons. Initially keep the distance short. Maybe if you get her to practice in a familiar place and context and hopefully reconditioned to be ok with ducks it will all come together.
