Need Help With My Dog

[BoTheHunter]

I have a 2 year old full blood chocolate lab male. He can sit, stay, retrieve, he also stays until i say back to retrieve. He loves the water but when i try making him retrieve a dummy in water he swims half way to it then takes off swimming doing his own thing. He has never been on a hunt and is kind of gun shy. Can i teach an old dog new tricks and make him be a good duck dog? Thanks!

 

[Jagger0502]

That’s a tough one. The answer is yes but you will have a lot of work ahead of you and it will likely be an uphill battle for a while. You will have to break all the bad habits and get a good baseline training regiment in line for him to get him focused on learning to learn. If all you ever expect of him is to retrieve a dead duck in the water “most” times you can do it. But any more than that it’s likely both you and him that will need trained. Your best bet is to go to a local trainer and get a good consult and realistic expectation. It will come down to time, and if you want to have the trainer work him it will come down to money.


The pup is young enough it can be done.

 

[30338]

Watch these 6 videos. This worked great on my first drahthaar and will be done once my 6 month old heals his foot up. I do not hobble them nor do I chain them to the post. Use my left hand to hold the collar and right hand to do the work. If you take him through this process, he'll retrieve as he will understand, it is not his option not to. Good luck, advice worth what you paid for it.

Forgot the link.

 

[Spoonbill]

2 years old is still plenty young to correct some problems. I would find a dog trainer in your area and have them fix the issues. My lab was gun shy and didnt want to bring a bumper back. 2 months with a trainer fixed those issues.

 

[TX_Diver]

If you have a solid obedience platform then I think force fetch is the next step for what you want to accomplish.

Freddy King has some good videos on youtube that break it down. Go slow and work the steps right making sure your dog is learning it right.

 

[Montana Slim]

Force Fetch. Call it a conditioned retrieve if you want - but sounds like that's your next step to me. Lots if good resources - and some bad ones.... I have had good luck with "Smartfecth"

The gun shy thing is a whole 'nother ball of wax.......

 

[Russp17]

Check out perfection kennels. They have some videos for fixing gun shy dogs. Good luck.

I agree force fetch/trained retrieve will help.

 

[ICTHRUU]

If you’ve done the basics yourself-congrats. I agree, advancing into FF seems reasonable. There are a lot of good info out there if a trainer isn’t an option (Hillman, lardy, tons of info on the RTF)

 

[cacklercrazy]

I have a 2 year old full blood chocolate lab male. He can sit, stay, retrieve, he also stays until i say back to retrieve. He loves the water but when i try making him retrieve a dummy in water he swims half way to it then takes off swimming doing his own thing. He has never been on a hunt and is kind of gun shy. Can i teach an old dog new tricks and make him be a good duck dog? Thanks!

Yes, but you must get on a strick program and do it every day. Chris Akins has a great dvd program that very simple to follow. 2 years old is too old , but don't wait. You will need to start over with the dog. Easy into the gun stuff. Make the retrieving fun for him. Then force fetch and e collar trained.

 

[BoTheHunter]

Yes, but you must get on a strick program and do it every day. Chris Akins has a great dvd program that very simple to follow. 2 years old is too old , but don't wait. You will need to start over with the dog. Easy into the gun stuff. Make the retrieving fun for him. Then force fetch and e collar trained.

What do i do if he is lazy?

 

[TX_Diver]

What do i do if he is lazy?

There's no lazy dogs...

But if he's acting lazy it's probably not fun/worth it to him so you may have to change tactics/attitude slightly. There's two potential scenarios that come to mind that have drastically different actions associated with them depending on what you think it is.

If he knows what he's supposed to do, (i.e. you're recalling him and he's "lazy" and doesn't come) then you need to enforce the command.

If he's learning something then you need to make it more fun and work through it. Keep training sessions short and always end on an easy/successful note.

If he has fun fetching 2-3 bumpers then stop there for a few days and always leave him wanting more.

 

[shotgunwilly]

Just my 2 cents, but no bird dog can refuse blood & feathers, maybe try some pigeons With clipped wings and a cap pistol For a small bang till he’s more comfortable.

 

[TX_Diver]

Just my 2 cents, but no bird dog can refuse blood & feathers, maybe try some pigeons With clipped wings and a cap pistol For a small bang till he’s more comfortable.

that’s a great way to make things more fun. Cap gun is a maybe depending on the dog, but feathers or live birds can definitely help.

 

[Marshall402]

Have you tried backing up and get excited calling him as he gets closer to you? Works well for short drops...

 

[Marshall402]

Oops, nevermind..I read that to fast and wrong. Go back to land retrieves..has he been force fetched? You dont have much control in the water compared to land.

 

[SaltyUte]

I would check out the information Freddy King puts out on The Retriever Trainer.

 

[Mosby]

I have a 2 year old full blood chocolate lab male. He can sit, stay, retrieve, he also stays until i say back to retrieve. He loves the water but when i try making him retrieve a dummy in water he swims half way to it then takes off swimming doing his own thing. He has never been on a hunt and is kind of gun shy. Can i teach an old dog new tricks and make him be a good duck dog? Thanks!

He is young enough to fix the problems. I would find a good trainer and take him there. If the dog has it in him(some don't) they will find it. Gun shyness can be fixed. I don't know where you live but there are some quality trainers out there that charge reasonable prices.

 

[cacklercrazy]

What do i do if he is lazy?

The program goes over that in Chris Akins dvds.

 

[CameronIdaho]

As for the gun shy, we had some experience with an English pointer that we all learned from.

Quick back story, we think she was just dumped on the farm and left for dead until my dad found her one day. So we called around hoping that maybe it was just a lost dog and we ran some found ads with absolute no luck. So she became part of the family quick, but she was very timid. So timid that any moderate sound in the house made her jump. The vet aged her 3 or 4 years old.

One thing she loved though was birds, she'd get all jacked up. So we started on the gun shy work slowly. We got a little .22lr pistol and a box of blanks and everytime she held to flush and during the flush, we'd pop off some blanks. I was the .22 blank guy that started off about 100 yards away and over the course of a few weeks, I moved closer until she was 100% comfortable. It seemed to work great as long as the negative sound was during an adrenaline rush.