Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Some Retrieving Help?

I have a 14 month old GSP. Hunted her on wild birds end of last year and tame birds in March. She never was spurred either of those hunts. In the yard she will retrieve anything and everything thrown for her, tennis balls, water bottles, canvas dummies, dummies with wings tied on, sqaush, cucumbers, it doesn't matter, if its thrown, she will retrieve it. If its thrown into the deep grass she will hunt for it until she finds it.

On pheasants it is different though. She will run to the bird, put her mouth on it, kind of roll it around, and then just stand there. If the bird is crippled and running she will chase it down with high intensity and hold it down, but won't still won't pick it up. She is definitely not scared of them.

The only thing I can think of is the yard work is with smaller items, and a pheasant is quite a bit bigger. I've ordered one of the pheasant sized/weight dummies from Cabelas, awaiting delivery.

Also read another thread about the dog only associating retrieving with something that I personally have thrown. Will try and mix that up as well.

She is very soft mouthed, even pointed out by my wife as the pup steals food from her hands, she does it very softly.

Another forum recommended force fetching. I'm not opposed to that, just have never done it before.

Any input or recommendations would be welcome. I do realize she is young yet, and it might just need some more experience as well.

Force Fetching is the technique used on retrievers. Its standard in training from all that I have read.

I am about to get my dog on some live pheasants. So far it has been very much the same experience as yours. The dog wont retrieve the live bird.

I bought a realistic pheasant dummy like you did, and my dog didnt want to retrieve it either. I had to coax him a bit to get him to carry the heavier dummy and the floppy head and tail. After just a few trys he was all about bringing it back. I added pheasant scent and hid it in the grass for him to find. I have had great success with the training dummy.

Now, when I get a few birds, I have high hopes for him to return them. I think your on the right track! You might add the feathered wings to the dummy as well. Then you have scent, weight and texture correct. She should take it from there.

Just in case you don't know, to have a dog trained by way of "Forced Fetch To Retrieve" is usually done with 2 year olds. This process is painful and streesful as well, it hurts me just to watch a session by a trainer.

Have a dozen fresh wings in the freezer, will add those to the new dummy when it gets here. I'm confident she'll get it down, just going to work on it a lot in the coming weeks.

There ya go.

I'll bet your dog doesn't have a retrieving problem - it has a picking-up problem. "Pick it up" is a command that can be taught around the house. If your house is anything like mine there's plenty of training fodder. In 5-minutes I can have quite a pile of socks, shoes, magazines, and dog toys laid at my feet.

Try to take the time during the hunt to encourage/command the dog to pick up and retrieve the bird even if the retrieve is only a few feet. There's a lot of extra pressure during a hunt - other hunters and dogs, the line is moving, and guys want to keep rolling and shooting birds. Preserve hunting can be even worse due to the pressure of having money on the line. Try to set all that aside and take the time to work on the little things.

Force fetch training is THE solution. It's not fun to watch but it works and saves a lot of problems and in the long run is easier on the dog than protracted training loggerheads. If it's good enough for Delmar Smith, it's good enough for me.

If you don't want to do that, freeze a pheasant and use it as a fetching dummy. It will last a long time and gives the dog the feather feel plus reinforces the scent.

+1 on freezing a bird and using it as a retrieving dummy.

I had a young Lab that would retrieve any kind of training dummy perfect but any bird I shot during her first season she'd go get and pick up ok but drop several times and look at it on the way back to me. In the off season I shot some pigeons, froze them and used as training dummies. It took a few training sessions and I started off giving her a small piece of hot dog when she did it right. After while she didn't care about the hot dog, just wanted to retrieve. She's retrieved direct to hand ever since.

Sounds like she just needs to go on a hunt with older more experienced dogs. They are pack animals and she will learn the ropes from them.

What's your method for training to "pick up"?

Thanks!

Start right now with one of your smaller dummies. Start with one wing, then tie 2 to the bumper.

I don't know if you are refering to retrievers or pointers, but if you don't have a retiever completely force broke by 12-14 months, you're hosed. That means running down the Double T.

Males are [usually] 2 months ahead of females.

Same problem with my 8 month old Lab. Trainer told me to use a frozen bird and make it fun. I would whoop it up while twirling frozen "Mrs. Duck" around my head, then toss her into the yard and talking excitedly the whole time, as soon as the dog got to the duck I would call her name and run around a bit. She would grab the darn thing and run to me. We would do this 2-3 times a night for a few weeks never making her sit to retrieve etc. and she has not in 7 years failed to retrieve a shot pheasant to hand in the field. Trainer said I wasn't making it fun for her. Hope this helps.

Over the years I've owned and trained 25 or more bird dogs including GSPs, Wirehairs, Drathaars, Pointers, Setters,Viszla and Lab breeds. Out of all those dogs there was only 1 GSP female that that was never force fetched to retrieve.

She was the most natural intense retriever I've ever seen and have been privileged to own. Not once in her lifetime did she not complete a land or water retrieve to hand. She went on to attain an AKC Master Hunter and AFC title and a NAVHDA Utility title.

Regardless of the breed force fetch training is the only reliable method to ensure a dog will retrieve when you want them to not when they want to do it.