RETRIEVING AUSTRALIA FORUM

I am after some help on stoping my dog playing with the bird on water retrieves. He does not do it on land but right from the start of my training he has rolled the bird in his his mouth in water. Up until now this has not been a problem but he has started letting it go, pushing it with his nose and when he gets to where he can touch the bottom he will pick it up and drop it a few times so it is sitting just right. He is a soft natured dog so in fixing the problem i don't want to creat another one as in bitting the bird.
. He is a 31/2 year old GSP trained to a competitive level in all age. Being my first dog when things like this come up I'm not sure what to do.

Hi Matt

Welcome to the awrc!

How old is your dog? What breed is it? What training have you done so far with it? The answers to these questions might help others in providing advice.

Cheers, Jason

Hi Matt

Had the same problem myself many years ago with a dog who liked to 'teach his birds to swim' as I used to say! I just did a lot of water work over short distances and a lot of praise and use of the word 'hold' as soon as I saw the mouth moving. Use a river bank or dam where you can walk into it so if you are some distance away from the water, as you will be eventually, you can walk forward into the water if necessary. Training is training, you are not glued to a firing peg as in a trial. You do not say how old your dog is but I think mine also grew out of the habit too,... grew out, trained out? Who knows but he stopped! Some young dogs dont know how to breathe properly via their noses and hold a bird, so they have the bird and ingest water via their mouth but eventually they learn the right way too.

Regards
Maureen

Matt,

Does he roll / play with dummies in the water? If not take the birds away in the water. Sometimes these sort ofd things become bad habits and it is very very difficul to break the habit. So if he doesn't do it with a dummy reserve birds for the land as a way of breaking the cycle. Also has he been force fetched and properly schooled to the hold command? If so try taking delivery in deep enough depth that the dog is still swimming. Not so bad in Bundaberg but bloody cold on the jewels in Canberra!!!!!!

If he knows hold properly you should be able to antivcipate the rolling before he soits it out and say NO NO HOLD. Prevent the rolling will often prevent the dropping. One is the start of the other.

Good luck

Gareth