Dog Advice & Discussion :: Dog Chat

Hi All,

Just started posting on here and after some advice please for my 9 month old labrador boy.

I have been playing with Rupert on the retrieving/fetch since he has been a youngster. Just want to make sure Im doing the right thing.

I can get Rupert do fetch/retrieve for about 10-15 minutes while out on a walk. After this point he usually seems to lost interest as he does not come all the way back with the toy. Other times as soon as we begin he does not seem to want to get involved.  I have never given him treats for fetching the ball, I have only praised him. He understands the command 'give' and is starting to understand 'find it' if I throw the ball into the bush. If he does not give the ball I ignore him as I dont want to get into a tug of war games with him.

If he does not want to continue or start fetching, I normally just carry on walking. Is this right or should I perserve with getting him to do it?

Hi there,

The problem you have is quite a common one and it's probably a good thing that you've spotted it.

First thing I would ask, is Rupert show bred or working bred?

Secondly, has he been steadied to the retrieve yet?

The problem of dogs becoming a slightly bored of the retrieve often happens about 8 to 14 months and it usually very apparent in dogs who were usuaully very enthusiastic retrievers as puppies.

It is not a serious problem at this stage but can easily develop into one.

The thing to do is actually very simple though - deny them anything but one, very quick retrieve per day for about 10 days.

When you first take him out to do his training and he is at his most excitable that's the time to give him his retrieve.

You can spend the rest of the time on basic obedience - in fact its the perfect time to be working on sit, stay, heel and all the other really boring stuff - it's a bit like building a house, if the foundations are really solid such as the sitting, the recall etc - when you do start working on the interesting parts such as distance retrieve, handling on the blind retrieves etc it can be much easier.

Effectively by the time he's spent a week doing 'boring' basics and only having one retrieve a day for 10 days - by day 11 he'll be really up for it. I would also let him run in at this stage if you have steadied him - getting them back steady again is way easier than geeing them up if they lose interest in retrieving. I know when I work with Cockers for example, I let them run in for months and months and months to keep their interest high.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply and the information. Much Appreciated.

Rupert is from working stock, both is parents worked on a farm where he came from.

I will try to restrict the fetch and retrieve a little. Rupert still has alot to learn on this but I guess he is only just 9 months old. Friends of ours have a lab who is just over a year old who will not stop coming back to you once you have thrown something.

He seems to have good and bad days when it comes to all aspects of his training.

I tried hiding he toy in different rooms around the house yesterday and telling him to 'find it' which he did well but today when I tried he was more interested in sleeping  :D

Keep plugging away with him.

I own Labs myself and have encountered some who are retrieve mad and some who can take it or leave it. Are you going to take him shooting eventually?

You will find sometimes that dogs who were not greatly enthusiastic about training on dummies are completely different on game. I once handled a Field Trial Champion Springer who actually point blank refused to pick dummies - in fact once he knew it was a dummy that had been thrown he'd turn his head the other way so as to deliberately not mark the fall. On game though.... :twisted:

Thanks. I keep on trying.

He will mainly be a family dog but I would like to ensure he is trained and uses the skills from his breed.