# Lab tips



## mbplus4 (Jan 26, 2009)

I'm fairly new to the forum, and have been reading some of the posts in this section. Clearly, there is a knowledge base more vast than that which I could ever hope to achieve on my own. I'm hoping that you can help me out with our families latest addition. 

We just got a chocolate lab that is 1 1/2 years old. I wanted a good family dog, that could hold his own in the field. We have been very impressed with his training so far. He is a house dog, and has been very well behaved inside (good around kids, responsive to commands, etc). My question is how to refine his retrieving skills. He is very good at waiting until told to retrieve. The problem is that once he get's the bumper, he brings it back in my general direction, but runs right past me, and proceeds to carry the bumper all over the field. When we picked him up from his last owner, he demonstrated that he was able to bring the bumper back and drop it. I don't know what I have done to ruin that. 

I have tried my firmest "aahh", that works for everything else, but it doesn't seem to slow him down at all. The only way I can get him back to me is to either pick something else up, pretending I'm about to throw it, or put the tailgate of my truck down, at which point he jumps right in. 

Any tips for a beginner?


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## Travis R. Bullock (Jul 25, 2008)

You need to set a standard with the dog and then be consistant! If you are certain the dog understands to pick up the retrieve and bring the item back to you then you need to reinforce that behavior. It sounds like some additional training would be very helpful, perhaps a formal obedience referesher and then collar conditioning. Another factor you are dealing with is a change of ownership. These dogs are very smart and will challenge a new owner to see what they can and can't get away with! I frequently run into this when I have had a clients dog for several months and they return home. It is not uncommon for the dog to challenge the owner to see if they are going to uphold the same standard I did during my training program.


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

What he said...except for the clientele stuff. I sure don't have any of those. I'd say find a training program you like and start that dog right from the square one. It never hurts to go back to the basics.


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## Steve Shaver (Mar 9, 2008)

He's just being happy and proud of capturing his quarry and parading around to show it off or he's being possive of it, hard to tell without seeing him.
How long have you had the dog? Does he come to you without the bumper? As others have said a good refresher coarse in obedience would be a good idea. He needs to know your the boss. A 30 foot check cord on him with real short retrieves in the yard should help. Just gently guide him back to you with the rope and praise the h--ll out of him when he gets to you and throw again. Make him want to come to you. Should be easy to fix.
One more thing. You really dont want him to bring it back and drop it. If he brings back a cripple and drops it you could lose the bird. To fix that you need to go through the force fetch process.


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## mbplus4 (Jan 26, 2009)

Thanks for the tips. A lot of people post about the force fetch process, but I don't know much about how to do it. Any good books or DVD's on this topic...or training in general?


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## Gumbo (Sep 22, 2007)

The good news is that your dog wants to retrieve it, and he keeps it because it wants it (that's good too). I'd do several things:

1. Go through several sessions of Force to Here/Come. This teaches him to come when you call. Period.

2. After a few sessions of this, throw a mark, praise the dog as soon as he picks up the bumper, and call him to you with excitement. If he doesn't come, turn and jog away from him. He'll come. Then when he comes, don't take the bumper but instead, let him keep it while you hold him, stroke his head, and praise him for making a great retrieve. Again, don't take the bumper from him, but let him give it to you (if you overlay this action with the command Drop, he'll soon learn the Drop command). Be patient. If he keeps it for ten minutes, that's fine. But the standard has been set and he'll never get another mark thrown unless he brings you the bumper and gives it to you.

You'll have to guide this behavior a bit, but with some patience and persistence, it will come. Just never lose patience and rip the bumper from him--and tell your wife and kids that they must either conform to this new standard or don't play with him for a while.

Notice there's nothing negative here, no telling him No, no punishment, no raised voice. It's all positive. There's nothing more that dog wants in the world than to make that retrieve, so you reward him when he complies with a retrieve and deny him the retrieve for non compliance. Or sometimes you can make him wait a minute or two for the next retrieve. 

As for FF, I really like Evan Graham's FF program (DVD set plus the book).


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## deadicatedweim (Dec 18, 2007)

Steve Shaver said:


> He's just being happy and proud of capturing his quarry and parading around to show it off or he's being possive of it, hard to tell without seeing him.
> How long have you had the dog? Does he come to you without the bumper? As others have said a good refresher coarse in obedience would be a good idea. He needs to know your the boss. A* 30 foot check cord on him with real short retrieves in the yard should help. Just gently guide him back to you with the rope and praise the h--ll out of him when he gets to you and throw again. Make him want to come to you. Should be easy to fix.
> One more thing. You really dont want him to bring it back and drop it. If he brings back a cripple and drops it you could lose the bird.* To fix that you need to go through the force fetch process.


A good way to get the dog to put the bird to your hand before he drops it is to back up when he is coming with your arm extended and say give, drop it, release whatever you choose once the bird is in your hand and he can fill the pressure. Then once your in the field he will wait for the pressure to release. If my dog drops the bird/bumper before me I make her pick it up and bring it to me until she puts it in the right place. This teaches her to do it right the first time cause im not getting out of the blind to pick up a bird. Oh and lots of praise when she does it correctly.


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