Retrieving dummies.
Tur Bo with a Dokken quail..
Luke
I have used the conditioned retrieve on most of my dogs with mixed results. The first dog I force broke was Lady. She was the best retriever I have ever owned. I thought, nothing to it. Since Lady I have had dogs that would retrieve really well in the yard but it doesn’t always transfer over to the field. Dolly and Lucky will retrieve most of the time but sometimes they drop the bird and go back to hunting.
I hear people say that after force breaking their dog will retrieve anything. I would be happy if mine would just retrieve the dead birds. I really didn’t know where to go from where I’m at until I read the article in May/June 2016 Pointing Dog Journal written by Charles Jurney. Mr. Jurney says do not quit until you do the walking fetch with your dog. This consists of putting 3 dumbbells in a triangle about 10 yards apart. Heel your dog toward the first dummy and command fetch before you get to it. He uses the string on the toe and has the string in his hand. If the dog refuses He heels him in a circle and commands him to fetch again. If he still refuses he pulls the string just as he did on the table. When he picks it up he commands him to hold and pets him.
If you want your dog to sit before giving you the dummy or stand this is the place to insist on it being the same each time. After taking the dummy from him heel him to the next. Sometime they will fight you at each one. They must be made to pick them up and hold them. Do not let them drop the dummy until you have a hold on it. He says he goes until he makes 3 clean runs in a row before he quits. After he does this several days in a row and the dog is doing real well he replaces one of the dummies with another type retrieving dummy. This is just a portion of the article. If you want to train your dog to retrieve you should get the March/April and the May/June copies of the Pointing Dog Journal. Charles Jurney does a great job describing exactly how to do the conditioned retrieve.
As soon as I read the article I made some retrieving dummies. I got a 1 1/4 inch dowel rod and a couple of 5/16 dowel rods and made 4 dummies. I made mine 12 inches long but they would have been better at about 8 or 10 inches. I drilled 5/16th inch holes in the end of the 1 1/4 and drove the 5/16 inch dowel through for the x at the ends.
I put them out in a triangle. It was a real warm day so I made my triangle huge by putting each dummy in a different shade. The trees near the kennel are pretty far apart. I have already changed my dogs from the string on the toe to the e-collar. I put the e-collar on Blaze and heeled her to the triangle. Blaze never grabs anything. Just before we got to the first one I said, “fetch”. She slowly put her mouth down, took the dummy in her mouth then opened her mouth and followed me without the dummy. I turned around and when we got close I said, “fetch”. She picked up the dummy. I whoaed her and petted her. I said, “give” and she dropped it in my hand. After a few tries she had that figured out and did it with no problem.
I brought Tur Bo out next with the e-collar around his neck. I heeled him toward the first dummy and just before we got to the first one I said, “fetch”. Tur Bo lunged for the first one. I told him to hold then to whoa. He held the dummy until I said, “give”. He never had a problem with any of them. After we went around the triangle 3 times I put him in the kennel.
Luke was next. When I heeled him to the first he dropped his head but just kept walking. I heeled him around again and said, “fetch”. He dropped his head but still didn’t pick it up. I heeled him back toward it and when I said, “fetch” I also pushed the button on the e-collar. He picked it up and I said, “hold”. I whoaed him and petted him. I said,”give”. He dropped it in my hand. The next dummy he picked up but the third one he wanted to walk by. It took a little longer to make him pick them all up. This is where you make the dog understand that when you say, “fetch” he needs to get something in his mouth.
I did this exercise several times with all 3 dogs then started substituting different type dummies. Now I have 7 different things for them to retrieve. I have 3 Dokken birds; a quail, chuckar and a pheasant then 4 different dummies. The dogs really like the quail and chuckar but they don’t like the pheasant. I think the pheasant makes them work at opening their mouth larger than usual. We are working on these 7 different dummies until we get it down.
I like this exercise well enough that I’ve also worked Dolly and Lucky on it. I think this is what I have been lacking in my force breaking. I think with this exercise even Lucky and Dolly will retrieve all of the time instead of just when they want to.
Dolly with the pheasant.
Blaze with the chuckar.
Lucky with a quail.