Mr. Merkel

Hi all and thanks for the replies and emails I have received some good advice, if I was asked for my dogs strengths and weaknesses I would say his recall is very good but not quiet 100 per cent on the whistle to verbal "Here" and the good old thigh slap he will sit facing me waiting for a treat, weaknesses are walking to heel off the lead (easily distracted by rubbish blown on the wind ect.) which we work on daily and his delivery of a dummy, retrieving has now been put on the back burner for a while. As for the retrieve he will mark well and run out and back in a straight line to hidden and seen retrieves its the delivery which is the problem, I have tried him on a retractable lead the final 2 feet he has to be coaxed in with gentle pulling to taken the dummy, I am reluctant to use treats for retrieving as I have concerns about the retrieve being spate out in anticipation of the treat, this is a problem I have not experienced before I have been lucky my previous dogs delivered to hand from the very beginning. All the best Tim

Hi, all I am hoping for some advice, tricks or tips to overcome a delivery problem with my lab dog, in as much that he will not bring the dummy to hand but will prance around coming back and forth touching my hand with the dummy and panting heavily almost grunting, its almost as if he allows me to touch the dummy but its his and I cannot have it.. This is a problem that has raised its head before as a result I do little retrieving with him due to this issue, I stop and go back to basic with him, he is now 14 months old. He is fine in all other aspects so far sometimes a little nervy other times excitable. Introducing a dummy seems to scramble his brains and he forgets everything that we have done hence going back to basics. I now feel I will run the risk of boring him if I don’t move on and do more interesting training with him. I have tried walking away and ignoring him, also calling him to heel and letting him walk with me for some distance but as soon as I put my hand down and say dead the panting starts and he is on for a game and all the commands of sit heel and here go out of the window. It was suggested previously to sit him and placing the dummy in his mouth and taking it away with DEAD this was tried repeatedly only to be met by a paw and claws after the DEAD command, late last summer my hands and arms were scratched to hell by this pawing catching me out. Has anyone else experienced this before and overcome it, if so I would be grateful to hear how or does anyone have any suggestions to overcome this problem. Many thanks. Tim

Really sorry to hear about your poor dog I sincerly hope that she makes a full recovery and does not have any lasting injuries, I appriciate that it isnt much help at the moment but you really do need to involve the Police, you never know you might get someone who does care and goes out of the way to track this dog down it could be a child next and maybe they need to be reminded of that. I wish you all the best Tim

Thanks again for the welcome and a welcome to those who are also new.

Hi, Zab10 and thanks for that mines 18 weeks at the mo and showing no signs, I'll keep watching. Tim

Hi all, Generally speaking at what age should I expect my lab puppy to be teething. Many thanks Tim

Thank you for the welcome

Hi all Tim from Romford here, thought it was about time I stopped hiding in the shadows and introduce myself. Ive been shooting for a few years but had a break and have now return to pigeon shooting, acquired a lab puppy and enjoying the training lessons, introdued him to swimming today which he absolutely loved. Great forums and really useful advise. All the best Tim