Wanting to play chase

[Nonehpets]

But it seems like a catch 22 do I chase him and drag him back or just ignore him??
I can take anything from him that is not a problem.

So if he isn't avoiding giving the item to you why is he trying to evade you? that does not make sense ...

What retrieving exercise/training do you do with him? Do you expect a sit to deliver then? If so loosen up and have the retrieve delivered without a sit; then use the same cue word to have him bring you whatever object he has collected and brought into the house.

Would you chase him in the field and drag him back to deliver a retrieve? I wouldn't with my dog - I would be going back a few steps to work out why he wasn't retrieving things to me anymore and then dealing with the cause rather wrestling the dog.

Cathy

[Hepe]

Hepe, with the utmost respect (I am sooo novice at this) would this encourage the pup to spit out what he has in his mouth early in other situations? I'm not challenging you, I genuinely would like to know x But I defo secnd the lessons

You are probably right but do we care? What we care about is the dog coming back to the handler, prepared to listen and going on with the training. At this point i wouldn't be overly worried about the object but instead focus on the dog coming back to me, with or without the object instead of playing hide and seek. My experience is that once the dog learns to come back to the handler on recall to continue the training they will begin to bring in the retrieve too.

Helene

[sunbeam]

My lab pup loves to carry stuff too!
In all honesty, if it's not dangerous (I have no precious items!) I ignore it, she soon gets bored and I just get rid of it once she's disgarded it, if that is not an option, I recall her and she spits it out to receive her reward (making sure its of a higher value as Hepe says). I was taught never to chase or shout at a pup with something in its mouth.

[Stacia]

When you are exchanging one article for another, the dog doesn't need to spit it out, just put your hand on the forbidden article and quickly swop.

Jelinga

[frostoff]

Thanks for all the input, we are taking it all on board.
But my biggest worry is what is dangerous and what is not when insects are concerned?
I was le to believe that slugs etc were poisonous to dogs. (which he has a real liking for as well as worms).
The other items such as pebbles and anything else he may steal as long as I know what it is I will ignore.

[Bogtrotter]

As far as I know, it is not that slugs are poisonous in themselves, but there ARE two dangers .....
... they might have consumed toxic slug pellets
... they are a source of lungworm
... so the consuming of slugs and snails should definitely be prevented imo.

Fiona