My lab pup was progressing with her retrieving training, and I was just beginning water training when she injured a growth plate, causing displasia, leading to surgery (osteotomy) and 6 weeks of recovery. Altogether over two months of training lost. She is now almost 7 months old. Doc says that the surgery was a great success, her recovery has been great, etc., time to get her going again.
We let her retrieve just a few times toward the end of her recovery, and she did not seem to have lost anything in her retrieving ability. Then had the pin taken out about 5 days ago, and today she seems to have forgotten how to retrieve. At all. She just looks away disinterestedly, and if you can get her to make a retrieve at all, it's only a very short distance, and she drops the ball on the way back, which she never did even when learning to retrieve the first time. Something has definitely changed, there is something going on here that I just don't understand.
So, we're back at square one. How do I restart her training? When I first started, she had no problem running for the throw toy, and quickly figured out what to do. Now it seems like she is purposefully avoiding doing what she knows to do. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
We let her retrieve just a few times toward the end of her recovery, and she did not seem to have lost anything in her retrieving ability. Then had the pin taken out about 5 days ago, and today she seems to have forgotten how to retrieve. At all. She just looks away disinterestedly, and if you can get her to make a retrieve at all, it's only a very short distance, and she drops the ball on the way back, which she never did even when learning to retrieve the first time. Something has definitely changed, there is something going on here that I just don't understand.
So, we're back at square one. How do I restart her training? When I first started, she had no problem running for the throw toy, and quickly figured out what to do. Now it seems like she is purposefully avoiding doing what she knows to do. Any suggestions would be appreciated.