working on retrieving
Recently we have had a few dogs which have been overworked on retrieving. These dogs have started to get sloppy in there retrieves. We have one German Shorthair Pointer that the owner says he can play fetch for hours with.This seems all fine and great, yet can translate into sloppy retrieves on birds. The dog may like to roll the bird in it’s mouth, drop it at your feet, drop it a few feet short, or not even want to retrieve at all. When working on teaching your dog to retrieve make sure to start young with a sock or something easy for the pup to pick up. Keep the sessions short 3 retrieves then quit. Keep the dog wanting more and more. Try to work the pup in an area with no distractions and where bringing it back to you is an easy route. Work pup two or three times a week. Don’t over do it. If pup doesn’t want to retrieve don’t worry about it we can correct this later. Keep your sessions short and sweet. Make retrieving a reward. Even when we advance to live birds and are training the dog extensively we only let the dog retrieve about every 5th bird or so. Make the retrieve a reward for handling the bird correctly. Don’t over do it!
