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Lab Doesn't Want To Pick Up Anymore


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Hi all,

 

A bit of a weird issue. Got a 2 and a half year old lab, his first season was the season that's just gone. He did brilliantly hunting in cover, and for the first half of the season was picking up like nobodies business. Towards the end of the season, he got way too excited on the duck drives and I decided to keep him on the lead, otherwise he wouldn't listen. This gave me clear indication that we needed to work on the start and stop whistle a lot more in the off season.

 

Fast forwards a few months, a couple of months ago I was training him on this whistle. I'd throw his dummy out while he sat down, sent him in for it with the command "Get it", as he ran back, I'd blow the whistle loud and clear. If he didn't stop and sit down, I'd sprint towards him and he'd soon sit down. Eventually, we got it down to a T and he was stopping as soon as the whistle tooted. I was very happy with his progress after just an hour and called it a day.

 

The next day, I took him out again, did the same exercise (in a different area). I threw the dummy, sent him in for it, then blew the whistle. He didn't stop straight away, so I did what I was doing yesterday and sprinted in his direction. He stopped, I rewarded him, took the dummy and started again.

 

I threw the dummy with him sitting next to me, sent him in for it - but he didn't budge. He just looked at me, refusing to go. This hasn't changed for about 2 months, and the most progress I get is that every now and then, if he doesn't budge after sending him in for it, I begin to run towards the dummy while excitedly calling his name and giving him the "get it" command. Eventually, he runs towards the dummy to pick it up. But this is quite rare, and most of the time he'll stay seated and just look up at me. I have no idea what went wrong, or why he is so reluctant to go in for dummies now. I don't know if its related to the incident with the whistle (so for good measure I've not used the whistle since).

 

What I have noticed he does though, is if we play catch (I sit him in front of me, take a few paces back and throw the dummy just above his head, so he can catch it in his mouth - the book "The Pet Gundog" by Lez Graham says this is a good way to train steadiness) - he is more than happy. So what I've started doing is throwing it purposefully over his head, so he has to turn around and run up to it to get it. I'm hoping this might reignite his desire to retrieve again.

 

Any ideas on what I can do here? The only other option I have is to keep at it with the retrieving, and hopefully come September on my shoots duck-only day, his carnal desires of retrieving live game might kick in and he'll start retrieving again.

 

Thanks in advance!

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You have done too much stop whistle by the sounds of it he doesn't know what you want him to do anymore and you have flattened him.

I am sure he will not be like that on live game but if you can tell he's getting a bit fed up of one bit of training go back to something he's good at for a week or two to build him back up again then go back to stop whistle, all the best

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You have done too much stop whistle by the sounds of it he doesn't know what you want him to do anymore and you have flattened him.

I am sure he will not be like that on live game but if you can tell he's getting a bit fed up of one bit of training go back to something he's good at for a week or two to build him back up again then go back to stop whistle, all the best

He still hunts like a gooden so I'll get him finding the dummies in bramble for a couple weeks then, thanks for the advice mate!

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What I read is there is some confusion with the sit , if The Sit is his Go To, time out , stop what going on around me position ,

 

It's a position where he feels comfortable , if sitting down stops you charging at him , it's a position that has been granted safety status ,

 

If something's works it will be repeated in times of confusion

 

Take a step back and connect with the dog, crutch down an odd time and let the dog come into your space If he will stand give him a rub on his top line until he softens up a bit , is he invested in you or trying to pull away, ?

 

Everything comes from how a dog feels about us , I encourage a dog to work by giving verbal commands first if I sense confusion he can often gauge a hell of a lot more from tone and encouragement and stance and facing expressions more than we ever know

 

Lower your tone, the dog has come a long way but if I don't see a dog actually going through his list of Learnt behaviours ive pushed to far and caused a mini meltdown ,

 

Best of luck

Go out for a few days and do nothing only hang with the dog and hand feed

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What I read is there is some confusion with the sit , if The Sit is his Go To, time out , stop what going on around me position ,

 

It's a position where he feels comfortable , if sitting down stops you charging at him , it's a position that has been granted safety status ,

 

If something's works it will be repeated in times of confusion

 

Take a step back and connect with the dog, crutch down an odd time and let the dog come into your space If he will stand give him a rub on his top line until he softens up a bit , is he invested in you or trying to pull away, ?

 

Everything comes from how a dog feels about us , I encourage a dog to work by giving verbal commands first if I sense confusion he can often gauge a hell of a lot more from tone and encouragement and stance and facing expressions

 

Lower your tone, the dog has come a long way but if I don't see a dog actually going through his list of Learnt behaviours ive pushed to far and caused a mini meltdown ,

 

Best of luck

Go out for a few days and do nothing only hang with the dog and hand feed

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Guy int pub said keep it away from whippets. Whippets are well known for ripping labs about being fat, posh lazy gun dogs. The lab now has a complex an wants to be a real dog

Get back on the lurcher section fella lol :laugh::thumbs:

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It sounds like you made a similar mistake to me, I had done stop whistle, I had my dog retrieving like a rocket. I combined the both, saw it worked, done it more and more and then the dog started to expect the stop whistle, his retrieve got slower and he start looking back at me and it all turned to ratshit

 

I think you have to break down every exercise, not combine more than one and just drum it into them gently but consistently. If you are doing stop whistle then do it without the retrieve until you have total success then test it during a retrieve to make sure it works....dogs are very adept at figuring out our patterns and will add 1+1 and get to 5

  • Like 1
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What I read is there is some confusion with the sit , if The Sit is his Go To, time out , stop what going on around me position ,

 

It's a position where he feels comfortable , if sitting down stops you charging at him , it's a position that has been granted safety status ,

 

If something's works it will be repeated in times of confusion

 

Take a step back and connect with the dog, crutch down an odd time and let the dog come into your space If he will stand give him a rub on his top line until he softens up a bit , is he invested in you or trying to pull away, ?

 

Everything comes from how a dog feels about us , I encourage a dog to work by giving verbal commands first if I sense confusion he can often gauge a hell of a lot more from tone and encouragement and stance and facing expressions

 

Lower your tone, the dog has come a long way but if I don't see a dog actually going through his list of Learnt behaviours ive pushed to far and caused a mini meltdown ,

 

Best of luck

Go out for a few days and do nothing only hang with the dog and hand feed

 

thats spot on regards ( stance, facing expressions, tone ) because many a time even if i have said nothing to my dogs , more so my one dog , the dog constantly staring at me , like i said to you before , i think its the collie temp in the dog, and ive always thought, that the dog behavior is manic /over the top, so the dog looking, for anything to latch on to with it crap temperament be it = staring, tone, stance, with me . not sure if labs are as over sensitive and manic temp as 1 x collie x grey hope to feck thay aint lol

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Hi

 

I think the best advice is from Casso is to have fun with him .

Sounds like you've confused him a little and at the same time over done it with the retrieving .

 

Just muck about, and build up the bond and his trust and then when you go back to it go easy and try different dummy's, different locations .

 

I over did it with retrieves whilst training mine and she got bored .

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  • 3 weeks later...

If you've blown the whistle, and run out to make him stop on every retrieve, you've trained him to expect to sit on every retrieve. If he doesn't make the pick, then the pressure never comes. So he's a smart boy who figured out how to turn off the pressure.

 

I'm a little confused as to what he was doing that made you feel you needed to work on his stop whistle. Was he not nonslip steady, and breaking on retrieves? If so, I would say lots of tossed dummies that he watches you, or another dog pick up would be the drill.

 

The stop whistle training should be conducted independently, not with retrieving drills. It's not a retrieving skill, it's a manners skill. Yes, it does overlap at times, but it overlaps everything we do with our dogs.

 

To get your dog retrieving again I'd try a couple different things. Dogs are very place oriented. Try doing some retrieving someplace different. If you can get some frozen game, still in feathers, or some shot pigeons, try using those. Also, if your dog like the water, some water retrieves may get him going again.

 

Good luck

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