my puppie wont play

[bellyboy]

Hi i'm to this site so to start i would just like to say hello and secondly i cant seam to get my 7 month old lab interested in the dummies i've even put some pheasant sent stick on them but just not interested can anyone help please[/b]

[Labfan]

You’ve probably board the dog by over doing it with the retrieving

[Gun7Dog]

forget about dummies at this point let him be a puppy he probably bored if your doing it a lot?

[Stacia]

Does your Lab ever pick anything off the floor, ie toys, slippers, socks, bones, paper, lav rolls anything!! If so, you have the beginnings of a retrieve and don't worry. Let him walk about with his prize and then gently take it off him and give it back, or swap it. This will eventually lead to him being interested in retrieving, but at the moment it should all be a game.

Jelinga

[bellyboy]

hi she plays with her rope toy and and she will sometime retrieve a dummy in the garden now and then but its when we are out on a walk or something she just seams more interested in everything else like tonight we done some really really good sit stay and down stay work but when i went play fetch work at the end she just not interested

[coco]

Have you tried tennis balls? Don't know why but dogs seem to love them.

[Stacia]

Maybe the obedience 'flattened her"? Perhaps play ball first and then sits and stays? Or perhaps just out for some fun and do the obedience at another time?

If she will retrieve in the house and garden, then do it there and forget doing it out for the time being. She may get very keen and then you can introduce it out when she will be more focussed on retrieving and not other things.

Jelinga

[Wycoller.]

Try something out of the box to get your dog to begin the retrieve process. No need to buy anything special for a young dog as we found a smal a small plastic bottle his favourite toy. My son has a habit of leaving his drinks bottles in his bedroom which have become target number one for retrieves in the house. Put a few stones inside and they make a noise and throw further for even more interest.

[bellyboy]

hi all thank's for all advice and this i took lucy out and we played with a dummy for ten mins or so and she done really so i think thats is the wat to go do play first then do the sit stay thankyou jelinga

[Tilleyflipflop]

I found with my young lab I was overdoing the retrieving training and she got totally bored- so i stopped for about a month- set us back a bit, but we worked on other stuff, sit, stay, heel etc... then brought back in dummies/ tennis balls etc- but only the small ones to start with. She is now super keen and loves it! But again we don't over do it, she is now 15 months old, and we work on retrieving 4 times per week- weather depending, and again not too many- quality rather than quantity. Also being a bit structured rather than just throwing dummies- so some nights we would work on 'get over' for a retrieve, other nights leave that or go back etc... i got easily distracted unless i set myself a bit of a plan!

I also found with her the same trick that Jelinga said- do retrieving work first then sit, stay etc- it does flatten them.

Good luck and have fun.