Labs that won't retrieve

[Scrolls01]

Plus, I also think Lucky will be a good retriever, he just has some growing up to do first.

[DogsUnited]

Wow, seems like this is quite common, yet I'd never heard of it before.

[ceasersmom]

Ceaser is a 2 year old that I adopted. He had no idea how to retrieve and barely noticed when a ball rolled by I read a few threads on the topic and we started working on it to see if maybe there is some retriever instinct hidden in there somewhere...

As Bob said, start small. We started in the den (he was more playful there then the hall) with his favorite toy. At first I dropped it real close to him and said 'go get it' when he picked it up I said 'give' took the toy and gave him a treat. He learned that give = treat and since he had to have something to give he started picking up the toy.

We have now progressed to 4 or 5 foot tosses in various locations and have gone from 2 or 3 mini-retrieves to 7 or 8. Not a fetching maniac by any means, but progress is progress.

It is a slow process at first, and I haven't worked real hard on it just a few minutes a few times a week. I usually wait till he is already showing an interest in his toy which isn't every day. He is a bit of a lazy bones at home.

[JoelSilverman]

Here is a link to training the retrieve on my website. There are 27 one minute clips that will take you step by step through each phase of the retrieve. This has worked well for me for many years.

http://www.companionsforlife.net/Onl...itor_home.html

[Felix]

You can learn youre dog "thing" until they die

[Bob Pr.]

Silverman said

Here is a link to training the retrieve on my website. There are 27 one minute clips that will take you step by step through each phase of the retrieve. This has worked well for me for many years.

http://www.companionsforlife.net/Onl...itor_home.html

OMG!

Please, those who've trained their Labs/dogs to fetch, view this and comment on it. I think the first 20 segments show him training a dog to sit and hold something in its mouth and then give it back. After that he moves it slightly to the right or left, gradually extending the distance. (Hint: watch about his first 5 segments in 1-2-3 &c order; then skip to the last 5 and view them in reverse order, 27, 26, 25. &c. That'll save you 17 minutes of time.)

Joel's working with what appears to be a terrier type mix rather than a retriever type dog so perhaps their chasing drive (after squirrels, rabbits, balls, training dummies, sticks, etc.) isn't as prominent and as easy to be developed and modified.

I do not doubt that a dog COULD be trained in this way because there are many ways of training to do almost anything.

But Joel's method for a retriever?

It's unlike any that I've ever seen recommended or would recommend.

Anyone else agree?

The ONE thing about his technique I liked was that he integrated into it a polite giving back of the object to the owner. So many Lab owners I've seen leave out this part of the fetch training so some have to chase after, or have a tug of war, or wrestle their retriever to get the object back. The training-in of a polite give should be part of any fetch training from the beginning, IMO.

Other, almost as important things to build in (IMO), are delays and interruptions of the fetch once it's been established.

This is so that you can keep your dog from, say, chasing the squirrel, rabbit or cat that's dashing across the street just barely missing the moving truck or, say, so you can keep your dog away from chasing that skunk it suddenly sees. Fetching dogs need practice in learning to wait, when you demand it, until you tell them to go. And they also need practice in learning to interrupt a chase and sit at that location until released when you demand that. It's like a wearing car seat-belts kind of thing.