Gundog Training Forum

How do you stop your dog dropping the retrieve a foot or two before your feet? How do you encourage the dog to bring it to hand?

Thanks in advance.

Iv also been having this problem so iv started to walk backwords wile calling her in.so far this is working for me but every dogs different good luck

I've tried moving away from him to bring him in closer but one thing that started to work was me refusing to pick it up off the floor....basically if you want another retrieve young man you shall give that dummy to me. You might find that the dog starts picking it up and dumping it at your feet again so move back and tell it to retrieve until you get a successful delivery then pet and praise rinse and repeat. This worked for me but I am far from an expert!!! So retrieve to hand he gets praise and dump on floor he gets nothing. I would not use treats because the dog is likely to drop the dummy sharpish when it thinks there is a food reward involved :P

Dog won't drop dummy if treats are given, because dog doesn't get treat until it puts dummy into hand One good way I found with my GSPs was to put dummy on kitchen floor, offer dog its dinner, dog had to work out to pick dummy up and put in my hand, otherwise dinner bowl went back onto work surface, dog learned very quickly.

Jelinga

This is a good topic! I've got a one year old lab retriever who I am beginning to introduce to gundog training. She has always been great at retrieving tennis balls, and she brings these in to feet and drops them! We've had a dummy for about a week now (1lb) and she's great at retrieving this, although again she brings it to feet and drops it rather than delivering it to hand.

I haven't cracked it yet - the moving away thing hasn't yet worked since she drops it and then comes to me rather than bringing the dummy along. i've tried treats, and she gets increasingly distressed that she can't work out what I want! But she's not so food orientated that she will press on, she's more likely to sit down as if to say that it's not worth the trouble! And once it's on the floor then the game is over for her; little chance she will pick it up and walk another few yards with it to where I'm standing or moving to.

I like the food bowl idea though; that will definitely get her attention. I will keep trying, but if anyone else finds a trick that works, or has a foolproof method then I would be really pleased to hear about it.

Thanks

Steve

What is your position when the dog is retrieving, i.e. sitting, standing, kneeling etc?

Greb0603 wrote:How do you stop your dog dropping the retrieve a foot or two before your feet? How do you encourage the dog to bring it to hand?

Thanks in advance.

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2026

SteveM wrote:I like the food bowl idea though; that will definitely get her attention. I will keep trying, but if anyone else finds a trick that works, or has a foolproof method then I would be really pleased to hear about it.

Steve

Clicker trained it. Clicked when dog put dummy in hand so he knew precisely what the correct action was. encouraged him to release to collect the treat as well

So recall, dummy in hand, click, dog releases, treat. Killed 2 birds with 1 stone as my dog used to either drop the dummy at my feet (and then yap at me ) or not want to let go.

For folks that are unsure of training the "hold" because I feel unless you're confident in this techinque you could do more harm than good also have a read here....viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5680 and here.. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7637#p92185

Rascal

Greb0603 wrote:How do you stop your dog dropping the retrieve a foot or two before your feet? How do you encourage the dog to bring it to hand?

Thanks in advance.

Try getting down on the floor and encouraging her to your lap with it, sometimes patting your chest with your hands to encourage her to sort of jump up to your chest helps.