Advice on training a Lab for retrieving

JoshuaWorrell

JoshuaWorrell

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Hello all.
I have an energetic 1 year old Chocolate Lab
She’s a great dog, stays right beside me while walking with the gun, and has no fear of the gun as of the end of this hunting season. I don’t want her to be the best retriever out there, I just want her to get the birds for me. She wasn’t to happy when she ran up on a grouse that was flopping around still, didn’t want anything to do with it.

I am looking for any advise on getting her to get into the water after a shot and a dead bird. Or how to train her to see the birds coming in. Just looking for basics.

Thanks in advance!
Josh
 
Certainly not an expert but have had one lab years ago and he would retrieve all day long. In fact he was the type that dropped the stick at your feet. Dove under water to retrieve etc. Couldn't get enough. Your buddy has a different plan. Her predatory instinct may not be really strong if a bird doing the hucklebuck puts her off. Patience and repetiveness is the method that works for me. Make a game out of finding things and bringing them back to you. Reward immediately when she does something right. Always finish on a high note, do something simple she always gets right is my usual move. She wants to please you so use that to steer her your way. Sometimes playing with her with another dog that retrieves will get her started. An older patient dog is a good choice for this. Once she knows what you want it all falls into place. Try to get 15-20 minutes of practice/day. Lucy (Gordon Setter) is my first female in over 40 years and it is certainly a big change for me. Just turned three, runs like the wind. She doesn't like to retrieve either but points the downed bird instead. Work in progress. Does she get 'birdy' for you?
 
Get James B. Spencer's book "Training Spaniels and Retrievers."

You don't have to train a dog to spot birds... once it figures out the birds (retrieves) are coming from the sky, the dog will spot them before you do.
 
Very hard to give explicit training advice on here. Best to buy a good book on training a water retriever. Also it can be invaluable to hook up with a retrieving club and get you and your dog out with them for training sessions as you both will learn a lot.
I trained 3 good yellow labs over the years. Ran one of the females at the Hunting Show many years ago as she was really good at blind retrieves on hand signals. Like yourself I was green on retriever training when I bought my first lab but between a couple good books and joining a retrieving club plus spending literally hundreds of hours afield with the dogs, it all worked out and I had some wonderful times hunting with excellent dogs that I trained myself.
Dogs are individuals and not all can be trained to the highest levels. A word to the wise. Some folks train their dogs with a heavy hand and use rough, shall we say training methods. Your bound to run into it. So don't be to shocked if you happen to witness this. Electric collars are a very useful training tool when used "judiciously, wisely and properly". Problem is most times they are not. I always took the more gentle approach to training my dogs. It has to fun for both you and the dog. Training your own retriever can be very rewarding for both of you. Good luck.
 
Have had labs all my life, other than a dogless period the last eight years, and to me it reads like you haven't introduced your girl to feathers or live birds yet. Does she retrieve items you throw? If so with her already proved to be not gunshy you are still in a very good position. Dogs don't just instinctively know or transfer skills to similar situations like you or I might. New things can be intimidating and confusing. As others have said get yourself a book on training a retriever or video and do your homework. Once she gets that what you want it becomes easier for her.

My current charge came to me last Thursday, he's already 5 month's and unfortunately other than house breaking he wasn't taught much. Retrieving was a completely foreign idea to him, he'd run to something thrown but unless it was chew-able or food he'd loose interest after, now he is improving each day with things like recall, retrieving, stay, and behaving on the leash as well as how to great new people. He has a long way to go but we have all spring and summer. Consistency and exposure help to make a well rounded dog.
 
Jim870

I have not done the feather for introduction yet as I had no idea that was a thing until now, nor have I had the chance to take her out with me while hunting this year the very little I did get out.
She retrieves anything I throw. And brings it right back to me. She’s a pretty good dog other than eating all my socks and the wife’s underwear......

Thank you!
 
If you can get some quail, grouse, duck, or pheasant wings tie them onto one of your dummies for training. I also used to use duck and pheasant liquid scent on my dummies for heavy cover training. Does she hold and wait for your command to retrieve. If not you best get started on that as it is most important she not break for many reasons. If your can hold the dog while a partner yells and throws up a dummy in the air so the dog can see it. She will want to go but nicely hold her for 10 - 15 sec. and then give the command "back" and let her go. When she brings it back praise her good. Do this exercise for about 15 min. Over time and depending on the dog you will go from physically holding her, to a lead, to nothing. This whole process may take weeks to months. One of my best dogs when really hyped up would break at times even after 8 yrs. So like I said it is dog dependant and they are all individuals.
A book and now I suppose CD's will help you a lot.

My present lab which my wife bought me 10 yrs ago as a gift out of a newspaper has no more instinct to hunt or retrieve than the Shiatsu that is presently sitting on my lap. The instinct is just not in that dog and when she was younger I refused to use forced retrieve training methods on her as most of them are not pain free to the dog. So I just let her be, she has been a pet all these years, although she was very good at rounding up the chickens when they escaped from their enclosure. She would herd them individually back to the pen, she started that and learned it all on her own.
 
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mrgoat said:
If you can get some quail, grouse, duck, or pheasant wings tie them onto one of your dummies for training. I also used to use duck and pheasant liquid scent on my dummies for heavy cover training. Does she hold and wait for your command to retrieve. If not you best get started on that as it is most important she not break for many reasons. If your can hold the dog while a partner yells and throws up a dummy in the air so the dog can see it. She will want to go but nicely hold her for 10 - 15 sec. and then give the command "back" and let her go. When she brings it back praise her good. Do this exercise for about 15 min. Over time and depending on the dog you will go from physically holding her, to a lead, to nothing. This whole process may take weeks to months. One of my best dogs when really hyped up would break at times even after 8 yrs. So like I said it is dog dependant and they are all individuals.
A book and now I suppose CD's will help you a lot.

My present lab which my wife bought me 10 yrs ago as a gift out of a newspaper has no more instinct to hunt or retrieve than the Shiatsu that is presently sitting on my lap. The instinct is just not in that dog and when she was younger I refused to use forced retrieve training methods on her as most of them are not pain free to the dog. So I just let her be, she has been a pet all these years, although she was very good at rounding up the chickens when they escaped from their enclosure. She would herd them individually back to the pen, she started that and learned it all on her own.
Click to expand...

She doesn’t hold but she brings anything I throw right back to me
I will work in the holding and scents and feathers when it warms up a little
Thank you!
 
Another thing you can try is use a whole frozen bird. Whatever you got. The dog gets a whole mouth full of bird and as the bird starts to defrost a bit the dog gets more used to having feathers in its mouth.
 
Someone just offered me a whole ganzer to work with!
That’s what I’ll do while it’s still cold and use it a little long. Keep the wings for another day
 
Have owned labs my entire life....two of them were truly outstanding.....made me look waaaay better than the I truly am. A great retriever is a well behaved dog and IMO the following are keys to channeling behavior. MUST BE CRATE TRAINED, MUST BE FORCE FETCH TRAINED, MUST HOLD ON THE SHOT......there are tons of literature of retriever club members that will help speed this up. Taking a year old dog is tougher (than starting with a puppy)....but can be done. I would try the following; Get her a "time to hunt" collar, hang it when she can pick it up herself. Put it on her EVERY time immediately before training, and take it off her the moment YOU end the training session (and later, your hunting day). Get yourself some barn pigeons(some dead and some alive)....and get her used to handling them dead first. Introduce her to live ones slowly if shes at all hesitant....when she targets live/moving over dead in her drills....you have her for life! Set a timer and train her for no more than 15 minutes at a time.........twice a day is fine if its separated by 5-6 hours. Stop all training while shes fully engaged (like ending a hockey game when you have just tied the game on a short handed goal!).....NEVER end on a mistake!!!! Snap her out of what shes doing wrong (not scold or spank)...redirect her.....and PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE what she does perfectly. Even a dog who doesn't love being praised, will know what is desired and what isn't. If your dog shows up at you feet with her hunting collar in her mouth....you've do you job. Good Luck Josh
 
southpawgreg
just gave you some extremely sound and solid advice
I have to agree with everything he just told and I'll add some tip from what I have learned as well

if you can find a copy of a book called retrievers from the inside out written by Butch Goodwin
his book is about training the hunting retriever first then the competition retriever second
if you can get pigeons
live , learn to shackle their wings , that way you can teach yer dog to hunt and use her nose and flush the birds as well , you need to develop what is called a prey drive , live or fresh dead and frozen birds is the best thing to develop this drive , she has the retrieving thing down
so now its just work on her desire to find and retrieve real birds ,
plastic, canvas or doken type dummy's can not and will not replace real birds , but if you attach duck and goose wings or grouse wings to them its a great start
pigeons are readily available if you have an imagination on how to live catch them if not youtube is yer friend ,
 
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