I am so proud of him I could burst, Well we went to the training day today and a guest trainer had been invited, (I didnt know this before we went). So I just took bailey into the novice section and didnt mention his age in case we were not allowed to train. His basics were perfect on and off lead, circle and back, sit, stay, leave, wait and recall. Then came the retrieve.  He asked Baileys age, was he about 5 and a half to six months, I had to admit that he was only 19 weeks, and the trainer was brilliant, he adjusted the retrieve slightly for Bailey, ie only throwing over my shoulder just to the edge of the overgrowth, not right into it and standing a little closer to Bailey than the older dogs. Bailey was excellent. Then came the water retrieves, and I said to the trainer I was not happy to do this as the drop was quite a way down for such a young dog, and also Bailey has never been in water yet. I have always been on my own when training him and have been to scared to let him into the river in case his recall bombed. Anyway, we went about 10ft further down to a path and threw the dummy into the river about 3-4 ft from the edge, Bailey stuck 2 front paws in and was not sure about the water so wouldnt go in.  The trainer asked if anybody was willing to go into the water with their dog to splash play with Bailey, and they did. Bailey then did 3 water short water retrieves perfectly, placed dummy into my hand and then shook himself.  I am sooooooo proud of him.  We have now signed up for a two day training weekend in July. After putting Bailey into the car when finished so I could go and help with the beat, the trainer came up to me and told me that I had a really good gundog in the making. I just wish I could remember his name. Thank you John for all your help and encouragement.

Kay

I'm so pleased it went well for you Kay. An understanding instructor can make a training session and make or break the early formative part of training a puppy. This should really give you confidence for the future.

A big well done to both of you!

Best wishes, John

I know that you've advised other people but how do I get my boy to retrieve to hand?  He comes straight back to me but insists on dropping the article at my feet.  What can I do?  He's a Spanish Water Dog by the way!

diane try to ring you on your moblie but no luck,got you send me your home number just to talk about the 1 st of aug.

terri

Hi Terri

You can call me at mum's on 0161 998 4746 after 7.30 tonight.  I've been out with some of the new owners of one of the pups today and they only left an hour ago after arriving at 11 this morning!!  I'll be free to speak then.

Or you can phone me tomorrow night here on 0161 902 0974.

A dog is capable of learning so much and the brighter the dog the more it learns. Trouble is, also the quicker it learns and it learns the wrong things quickest of all!!

Dropping the retrieve at our feet is often due to fault training right back at the start. We send our dog for something and it brings it back to us. We are so pleased that we really let our dog know how pleased we are even though it dropped it at our feet. Consequently the dog thinks "Great! This is smashing, he/she is pleased with me when I do this!" We have in fact taught our dog to do what we DON'T want! Not all cases of dropping start like this but so many do.

What do we do about it? We put the dummy back into the dog's mouth, or we tell the dog to pick it up. Then what happens? This all becomes part of the exercise! "She throws it, I fetch it and drop it at her feet. She picks it up and puts it into my mouth and tells me I'm a god boy! So now I've learnt that as well!"

What you really need is one right retrieve. One which you can praise him for. One which you can use as the bottom brick in the house you are trying to build. But just as important, you don't want to loose what you have at the moment.

The way I would go about it would be to completely ignore the dropping. No good boy, no bad boy, no nothing. I would also change the ending completely. No standing still to take the dummy. As he approaches but before he gets to the point where he drops, turn your back on him and walk away. Tap your leg or something to attract him to you IN A QUIET MANNER, you don't want excitement which could lead to him dropping. Whilst still walking put your hand down and take the dummy. THEN tell him how wonderful he is! But again keep it quite low key because you don't want to drive it out of his mind exactly what he's done to get the praise!!

You can see what I'm trying to do? I'm training something so totally different that the dog is in effect starting again in its learning curve. Gradually, as it works I would vary the distance I walk before taking. Sometimes it would include a little heelwork including a sit before taking it, at others I would just turn my back and stand still. I'm gradually adding a sit into the procedure so that I can do short sit stays holding the dummy. When I have that I can approach my dog head on and take the dummy. From there I can do a recall with my dog holding the dummy. So suddenly I have my dog presenting the dummy to hand! The sit on present would remain for the time being. Somehow it slows the process down a bit and has the effect of forcing the praise to come AFTER the delivery. Much later still I drop the sit and take directly the dog arrives, but by that time the delivery to hand is fixed in the dogs brain.

As the old saying goes, "Very slowly catchy monkey"! Slowly retrain. That's the way to go.

Best wishes, John

Hi John
I will definitely try this.  They are quite an intelligent breed and as you say can also pick up the bad habits too.   I knew that it was my fault though :d

I'm really pleased as he's done an underwater retrieve today, I know that's not in gundog work but he was brilliant and brought the article straight back to me.  Just have to get him retrieving and returning properly on land now!!

<<he's done an underwater retrieve today>>

At least you will be ok on low flying pheasants! ;)

Best wishes, John