Hi All, I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I've got a lovely little 7 month old black lab girl. She's very good for her age- we've just passed the bronze good citizen award - so I'm really pleased with her training progress so far. One issue that I did want some advice on is retrieving. She loves it and is constantly bringing me toys, balls etc to throw for her and she happily races after them and brings them back to me. The issue is that this is mostly in the house with 'her' toys and is on an uninvited basis (I.e. She initiates the game). I have a range of 'special' toys (specifically tennis balls) which she is only allowed access to when I initiate the game. She retrieves these very well in the house and garden but it largely all falls apart when we're outside In the big wide world. She will race after them but often just let's them drop out of her mouth and doesn't bother actually bringing them back to me. I should say that I do ration her formal retrieves- no more than three or four at a time and no more than three or four per week. But I'm starting to think that I need to also start rationing her uninitiated retrieving games at home with 'her' toys so as to increase her enthusiasm for retrieving when I initiate the game outdoors. The problem is that she gets quite distressed if she brings me a present and I ignore her- whining etc. I'd be grateful for any suggestions on how to handle this? I don't want to ignore her as I do enjoy our play sessions! The only other games she enjoys are tug and football (not always practical in the lounge!). I should also add that one of the main reasons I want to teach her to retrieve outdoors is part of my strategy to re-direct her attention from dog poop scavenging. We've made very good progress on this using the 'leave it' command but I also wanted to focus her on doing another activity! Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Vicky and Molly
Re: Retrieving issues Welcome to the forum, you'll get lots of good advice here. Any pics?? Sounds like your doing fine to be honest, my suggestion on retrieves is to reward the retrieve if she's doing what you want, no reward if she's not. She'll get the message. And continue to ignore (not reward) - that's fine, ignore the whining too. Just turn away, she won't mind! Perhaps you've moved to outside a little too soon or you're expecting the same result outside as she does at home, suggest you go back a step or two when outside and keep the retrieves short (in terms of distance) so she doesn't get distracted. Make sense?
Re: Retrieving issues Hi Molly, and welcome to the forum Congratulations on passing your bronze award too! Are you going to take the silver next? With retrieving, I suggest you keep a special dummy or toy for outdoor retrieves and don't let her have this at all, unless it is part of a specific retrieve session outside. Retrieving desire can be quite fragile in some young dogs. You can find lots of information on it here The Foundations of Retrieving How are you going about your retrieving outdoors? Are you making her sit and wait when you throw the retrieve? What do you do when she puts her head down to pick it up?
Re: Retrieving issues Hi, Thank you for your replies and suggestions. I think the biggest issue is probably me expecting too much, too soon with her! She's so good that I quite often forget she's only a baby. In terms of retrieving outdoors I let her chase straight after her ball when I throw it for her, rather than make her wait. I thought making her wait at this stage might dampen her enthusiasm? I went back a stage with her today outdoors on our walk and when she picked her ball up I made lots of squeaky noises to encourage her back to me and it worked! I think I'll just repeat this for a while before moving onto anything more refined. She'll certainly scamper back to me at speed for a sea biscuit reward in exchange for a good retrieve. I was really pleased she passed her bronze award I was a bit worried about the one minute stay but she passed with flying colours. We started the silver award last night and she's doing really well with what we've covered so far. My hubbie took a lovely picture of her last week after she'd been for a good splash about in the river so I'll try and upload that to the forum.
Re: Retrieving issues I've been experimenting with Flickr to upload the photo... here goes...... https://www.flickr.com/photos/123851338@N05/14199053875/player/689b48d8aa
Re: Retrieving issues Hi and welcome Molly is a very sweet looking girl My pup Harley (9 months) wasn't interested in retrieving until she was about 6/7 months old. As soon as she hit 8 months she became obsessed with the ball and it is still continuing. All pups have their own quirks and grow at different rates. I'm sure with what you are already doing that she will learn what you want her to do quickly I used to jump around to get Harley to bring the ball back!
Re: Retrieving issues Hello - your Molly looks so similar to my Molly! It sounds as if you're making very good progress with training. Well done!
Re: Retrieving issues Hi Vicky, your photo doesn't embed because of your settings (sharing is restricted on this image) You probably need to set that image to public, if you want it to display on the forum Don't worry about the retrieving, keep it light and fun, let her chase etc, encourage her back as you did today, with lots of fun and even running away from her. If she is not picking up and delivering more reliably in a month or so, you can teach the trained retrieve.
Re: Retrieving issues Hi Molly, Nothing to add to the advice you've been given just wanted to say hi and welcome to you and Molly,the photo of her is lovely.I have Dexter who is 20 months,he's a working line lab but lives with us as a pet,his retrieve can be reluctant ,we have more success with 'Find it' Best wishes Angela
Re: Retrieving issues She's lovely! Thanks for your question; I like reading them because I learn so much!
Re: Retrieving issues A very warm welcome to the forum from us, Hattie 6 years and Charlie 3 years. Molly us just beautiful xx
Re: Retrieving issues Thanks everyone for your advice and friendly welcome! I'll just concentrate on having some fun with her for the time being and review the situation in a months time.
Re: Retrieving issues Hello and welcome! Good idea just to have lots of fun with her for now, she is very young for serious retrieving!
