retriveing to hand

[IoW tom]

Hi all,

I have an 18 month old weimaraner called dolly, She is coming on really well however she won't retrieve to hand.

I've tryed geting her to come into heel whilst walking away from a retrieve but she just spits it out 2 ft away.

Does anyone have any good tips

Cheers Tom

[gdunc]

Sounds like you'll need to teach her to hold. It's a tricky procedure where the dog can sometimes get a bit confused but basically you offer the dummy to the dogs mouth and encourage her to hold it by praising and repeating the word hold and obviously correcting every time she drops.

Even prof. trainers don't like this one so be patient and encourage her as much as possible when she's holding. Then you can work on bringing her back in to you, then hold, then deliver to hand.

 

My Cocker's the opposite - she doesn't like to give it up!!

[charlie 1]

What you want to do it get her to do it with dummies so give her the dummy and as said above tell her to hold, give lots of praise and when she drops it say 'no' or wotever you say when u don't agree with what shes doing. then when she will hold it for you then start throwing dummies and do the same when she comes back with it so make her hold it for a while whilst giving her praise. then when she can do that ok start on game and what have you. do the same thing when she has it and is next to you give her lots of praise and if she drops it say 'no' keep doing this untill she will confidentally bring it back to your hand.

 

DO NOT at any stage try to snatch the dummy or bird or try to rush the retrive by taking anything as soon as she gets back.

it will take a bit of time o patients is a vertue.

good luck and i hope you solve this problem.

 

hope this makes sence to you

[bunny buster]

One of my springers used to do the same thing. when she is about to drop it call her to *** to you then giv the comand to drop

hope this helps

[new to the flock]

A couple of comments.

 

Firstly if you are planning to try to teach your dog to hold do not use a bumper. If your dog does not take well to the exercise....which is really a short version of a trained retrieve..... you will have nothing to move back to and a dog that will not touch a bumper until force broke by a professonal. For this exercise use an "X" dowel. A dowel 6 inches long with smaller dowels drilled throgh the ends. these smaller dowels form an "X".

 

You want to remove this exercise from the dummy until she retrieves the dowel to hand so that there are never any negative associations to the dummy.

 

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When you have been trying to get her to retrieve what have you been doing?

 

Sitting her beside you and then sending her?

 

Only giving her two or three retrieves?

 

Walking backwards while encourageing her to come on?

 

Turning or running backwards , stopping as she catches up to you?

 

Give some info as to what both you and the dog do in a typical training exercise and maybe we can come up with a program before you get into force breaking.

 

NTTF

[IoW tom]

A couple of comments.

 

Firstly if you are planning to try to teach your dog to hold do not use a bumper. If your dog does not take well to the exercise....which is really a short version of a trained retrieve..... you will have nothing to move back to and a dog that will not touch a bumper until force broke by a professonal. For this exercise use an "X" dowel. A dowel 6 inches long with smaller dowels drilled throgh the ends. these smaller dowels form an "X".

 

You want to remove this exercise from the dummy until she retrieves the dowel to hand so that there are never any negative associations to the dummy.

 

................................................................................

....................................................................

 

When you have been trying to get her to retrieve what have you been doing?

 

Sitting her beside you and then sending her?

 

Only giving her two or three retrieves?

 

Walking backwards while encourageing her to come on?

 

Turning or running backwards , stopping as she catches up to you?

 

Give some info as to what both you and the dog do in a typical training exercise and maybe we can come up with a program before you get into force breaking.

 

NTTF

 

What i do is sit her beside me,throw the dummy, wait for a moment then send her.

She goes straight out and picks up the dummy, at which point i run backwards and get right down low when she approches.

 

 

We only do 3 or 4 retreives per session and i try and make them a bit difrent each time ie- hide one in the grass etc. And always into the wind.

 

If I sit right down on the floor with my legs open when shes returning she'll drop it right between my legs but never to hand.

 

NTTF- what do you mean by a bumper ?

[new to the flock]

Sorry Bumper and dummy are one and the same.

 

Please remember that you can not train pointers and retrievers the same way. Pointers you must encourage to a retrieve while retrievers you must control a retrieve. First off pointers should be play retrieved from puppy if you want a natural retrieve. Knotted socks, tennis balls puppy bumpers all work very well.

 

With your dog being 18 months old you are going to need to change your retrieveing work to get her fired up and retrieving to hand. If this were my dog all formal retrieves would be placed on hold until I had a reliable deliver to hand. To obtain this I would switch to tennis balls or any other item such as a kong, weighted drinking bottle that she has a very high desire for....not a dummy....., in the back yard , park, field etc. No formal sitting, no formal waiting, just out and out playing. Throw the ball and let her tear after it. When she is bringing it in jog backwards and as she gets to within 4 feet change direction back forward. This should put you in a position to allow you to accept the ball from her mouth. If you can get your hand on the ball in her mouth be sure to praise with good girl. If she wants to hold it for a bit when you have your hand on it tell her hold and praise. If you go slowly you will find that she will hold it longer and longer and will learn the hold command with out knowing you are teaching it. You will also find that no tennis ball will be safe from being brought to you at anytime no matter where or what you are doing. This exercise will build the drive that you require to work formal retrieves.

 

If she drops the ball when she gets close to you give it a 2 or 3 foot nudge with your toe and encourage her to pick it up, making a big fuss over her when she does. Hold your hand out in front and wait for her to set, throw, or accidently lob it into your hand. Repeat as many times as neccessary as she will very quickly understand that unless the ball hits the hands it will only get a nudge and not a throw. How many times should you send the ball out for retrieves....Until she is tired. I have had dogs that I have thrown a ball for an hour at a time.

 

You will find that in very short order your dog will love to play fetch . Once this happens you can slowly start to add in sits before throwing, and sits on delivery. A word of caution....DO NOT make every retrieve a formal in training or she will shut down again. Just like people she wants to have some fun at work or work becomes boring and mundane, and she will start to resent it.

 

NTTF

[al4x]

cheers for that NTTf, my pointer isn't as keen at retrieving as she could be but is getting into it but has a low boredom threshold and will do a few and then it becomes a stuff you attitude. Is getting better but that makes sense so I'll just keep it fun for the moment though

[IoW tom]

Thanks NTTF, thats brilliant advice, I'll give it a try tonight.

[gundogpa]

Here is how I teach hold.

 

 

I like to start on a training table but it's not required. I get him up on the table, snap him to the cable. Get him to sit properly. put the dummy in his mouth, say "hold" Make him hold. Make sure his lips are not pinched.

Do not yell.

Do not hit him.

Do not lose your temper. He'll know, you can't hide it from him.

Be firm and calm......we're teaching not testing.

 

 

 

Hands off except to reposition the bumper or if you have to to hold his mouth so he won't drop it.

 

 

 

Stay calm, find your still center, do not lose your patience.

 

He must sit properly, no escapes. No sloppy sits, no holding the bumper crooked, if (when) he does, fix him and say "hold".

 

Say give for him to give it up or what ever command you want. Praise but don't go crazy about it.

 

The first holds can be only for a few seconds....if it's a good hold that's a great start.

 

Really a hold for 5 minutes is no different than a hold of 5 seconds.....just longer.

 

Keep the sessions short, 5-10 minutes or so.

 

Never ever from this point forward accept a sloppy hold or for him to spit at your feet.

 

Never. Not once. If he does, correct him by placing it back in his mouth and when you have him doing it right...IE no sloppy sit, crooked hold etc. Say "hold"

 

Keep working every day. After a few days he'll be sitting there on the bench holding with no problems. But we're not done, usually anyway.

 

Next move him back and forth on the bench while holding. You'll probably have to correct him a little more.

 

Then go to the ground, just sitting and holding, then while heeling, then throwing bumpers from only a few feet away(while he's on the check cord), then longer retrieves, then in water, then frozen birds, then live birds.

 

Each step might take a little while to work through or maybe not much at all. You will have to teach a little at every step, plan on it.

 

Boston really struggled when coming out of the water......took a few days there. I actually stood in the water to take away his imaginary barrier.

 

If he spits coming in, I put the check cord on him, bring him back to the spot. "sit", "Hold", "stay" and then go back to my spot..."here" for the delivery. Never let him get away with spitting one. Not once. You can reinforce with a "hold" command when he's getting close to you if you want.

 

Stay calm, we're teaching not testing. when he does not do it properly, calmly correct his hold, posture etc. No need to be jabbering a lot and no touching except to correct.

 

And no fun bumpers until this is fixed..........no retrieving of any kind until he's lined out and never allow a spit or sloppy hold. Once he realizes you won't accept it he'll give up and just do it to get on with the next retrieve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nose to the wind brother,

 

 

 

Chuck