11 Month Old Lab Stopped Retrieving

[7pntail]

Good luck, been there. Best dog I have owned did the same thing (not on bumpers though) at about the same age. Bramble went like a bullet and then looked at the frozen bird as if to say now what? Tried rope with mixed results. I was devastated.

Great advice so far! could be teeth, doubt it at that age though. I tired live birds too, and though the pup was fired up, he still dropped them while trying to "real him in"

Ultimately, FF made a huge difference--

Good luck--welcome to the forum. I am a rookie trainer. Lot's of good advice here.

[Jon Hass]

Style,
How do you snap them out of a bad attitude?

Like Ken said Live birds will snap a dog out of it's slump if it has any prey drive. I would also start playing games with the dog..lots of hup hups. I have had one dog that absolutely quit retrieving while in force fetch. I continued through ff anyways because we had gone to far to turn back. When we got done w/ CC and she learned how to turn off the pressure her attitude came back but would not retrieved fun bumpers. So I changed the game and started hiking it to her like a football.. Two fun sessions like that and rolling around with her and loving her and we were back in the field picking up marks.

[8ptDuck]

Put her up. No play, no work, nothing. Eat, pee, sleep and that's all she gets. Wait a week or so and see if her attitude changes.

I had to do this with my first lab around the same time. After about 3 days you could tell she wanted to retrieve but I kept her in the full week. When I started working her again I started from the beginging. Never had another problem

[Folsomsdogs]

I have seen many dogs just lose interest in retrieving form time to time before they went through FF. IMO, before FF the dog is doing it because they want to and when they want to. FF will make retrieving a job for the dog that it has to do, and when they don't comply you have a tool that will correct it.

[pstrombeck]

I like to introduce competition. If you have a pupil that doesn't want to pick up the bumper after one or two retrieves or simply stands over the mark I will bring out a finished dog. Throw the mark with the finished dog at heel in full view of the dog in question. As soon as your pupil balks send the finished dog - the finished dog will typically pick up the mark and taunt the other dog with the bumper (or bird) before completing the retrieve. Repeat In my experience (albeit limited) after multiple marks the lackluster dog typically wants to be in the action. We have used this a number of times in the past to rev up some dogs that either got a late start or didn't show alot of interest in the beginning

[metalone67]

When she does this is it on the first bumper or a few into the retrieves?
Live birds will kick a dog into another attitude.
Also always stop on a good note and leave her wanting more.

[utbowhunter]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I will try the suggestions and let you know how they turned out.

thanks again

[utbowhunter]

I took my pup out today and she is still not working with the bumper, but some good news I tried a ball, and she will retrieve and return the ball. I will work that way for a awhile and then go back to the bumper. I did give her lots of praise on the retrieve of the ball. fingers crossed.

[bmountain]

look into wing-clipped pigeons