pup retrieving when and why?

[Kells]

I have read on this forum several times over the past couple of years that some trainers will do a small bit of retrieving (spaniels) up to 3months and then will not do any retrieving till they are 9/10 months. What are the reasons for this? Looking forward to hear your thoughts please

[Nickheref]

I suspect what they are saying is, if the pup is a very confident retriever and happily carries things and brings them back to hand they know they do not have a problem and so need not do much until later. If the pup will not bring the retirieve to hand (or worse won't carry at all) they know they have work to do before moving on to other training at a later stage. That is how I proceed, what you are doing is assessing the pup, I would still give a keen retriever the odd retrieve but not very many or very often, just making sure all is still well in that department and reinforcing the bond between us ie keep it as a treat. More are spoiled by too much retrieving than too little, it is very easy for a novice trainer to overdo retrieving particularly if it is going well. Similarly with water - if a youngster swims first time without any sign of concern you know that this will be ok, if not you have to work out how you are going to improve this. Sometimes time improves both but not always and that is where your skill as a trainer comes in to work out if there is a problem or just a youngster who needs to mature a bit.

[trekmoor]

I think there is a risk involved in seeing a 3 months old pup happily retrieve and then assuming it will still happily retrieve if retrieve training is not given until it is 9 months old. During that 6 months the spaniel pup will have been hunted and hunting can almost completely take over the pups mind.

This happened to me with my very first Brittany. She retrieved fine at 3 months old so I left retrieving alone and did hunting instead. She found game and by the time I tried retrieving again when she was 5-6 months old she would no longer retrieve. I was a fairly experienced gundog trainer and "knew" several ways of encouraging a retrieve but not one of them worked. She would not retrieve any kind of object or dummy and she would not retrieve cold game either.

I had reached the point of considering "moving her on" when she saw birds get shot and fall . She at once retrieved them perfectly !
I saw my present Brittany was similarly minded as a very young pup so I struggled and juggled to keep a balance between her hunting and her retrieving for at least the next six months.

My advice is to keep the retrieving ticking over at the same time as the hunting . Do not put retrieving onto the back burner for a few months or it could prove difficult to get it back onto a front burner again.

Wullie

[Nickheref]

Agreed, but there is a difference between a retrieve or two a week and 20 a day which I see sometimes

[trekmoor]

I agree that too many retrieves can be given to too young a puppy. Just keep the retrieving ticking over and gradually build toward 10 -20 retrieves per day over many months.....if you think that many is a good thing ? I do think that but I don't trial spaniels.

Wullie

[Nickheref]

Sorry, I think we are at cross purposes, I never give anything like 20 retrieves a day to my youngsters, maybe three or four a session max but not until they are a lot older than three months. However I do see novice owners giving their youngsters lots of retrieves in a session, often on bare ground where the dog can see the dummy at all times and which then start hunting with their eyes rather than their noses.I think it is a mistake but that is rather off topic.The real key is to watch the dog and make sure it is not becoming bored at any stage with the training.

[Springfield Pointers]

There is no one size fits all. Train the dog in front of you. Some can handle a lot, some like early starts, some you need to pamper a bit. We're not making bricks here. They are not all alike.

[Blackjaw]

I think the people who use place boards give more retrieves than 'normal' puppy training but as Nickheref pointed out, it is all about not boring the dog when training.

[Kells]

I got the impression that the reason some trainers refrained from retrieving between 3 and ten months was that this is time when most problems arise...when pups are teething etc...would there be any 'mileage' in this theory

[Springfield Pointers]

I got the impression that the reason some trainers refrained from retrieving between 3 and ten months was that this is time when most problems arise...when pups are teething etc...would there be any 'mileage' in this theory

No. Not to my mind anyway.