Im gonna preface all of this with telling you this is my first dog that Im attempting to train myself. I now see why everyone told me to let a pro FF her, but Ive done all of her training up to now and dont want to give up out of frustration. Nelli is 13 months old, is solid on sit, here, and heel. She hunted with me this year and retrieved 80+ ducks and got her first started pass last weekend at CRC's HT. Because of the timing of her teeth coming in right before hunting season Im just now getting around to FF. I started the day after the season went out here in SC which was 2/1.
It took 2 weeks to get to where I felt comfortable with hold, and I may be obsessing too much over this whole thing but just need some advice on were I am and if this is normal. She will hold the bumper continously for 2 minutes, will walk at heel while holding the bumper, will sit while holding while I walk off out to distances of 100 yards. Everything Ive read and watched told me we are at the right stage to start "fetch" with ear pinch. We started ear pinch on monday, 2/15. Been doing 2 sessions a day, morning and evening, the few 6 sessions everything seemed fine so I started throwing her a couple marks on Thursday morning at the end of the session. She did great, delivered them to hand, and I felt like we were starting to make some real progress. Then yesterday evening she starts actin a fool, we are on the ground, and Im holding the bumper farther and farther away and shes lunging for it every time. We end the session on a good note and I throw her a fun bumper, she goes and gets it and drops it at my feet, I pick it up, do ear pinch, tell her to fetch and she does, lots of praise so i try it again, same result. EP'd again she grabs it, holds it, I give lots of praise and put her up, to end the session on a good note. This mornings session went pretty much the same way with 2 drops at my feet at the end and I'm frustrated to say the least.
I now realize that after all this typing I probably just need to slow back down, take away the fun bumpers and chill out, but any advice/encouragement would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading my vent.
Signed,
a frustrated newb
It took 2 weeks to get to where I felt comfortable with hold, and I may be obsessing too much over this whole thing but just need some advice on were I am and if this is normal. She will hold the bumper continously for 2 minutes, will walk at heel while holding the bumper, will sit while holding while I walk off out to distances of 100 yards. Everything Ive read and watched told me we are at the right stage to start "fetch" with ear pinch. We started ear pinch on monday, 2/15. Been doing 2 sessions a day, morning and evening, the few 6 sessions everything seemed fine so I started throwing her a couple marks on Thursday morning at the end of the session. She did great, delivered them to hand, and I felt like we were starting to make some real progress. Then yesterday evening she starts actin a fool, we are on the ground, and Im holding the bumper farther and farther away and shes lunging for it every time. We end the session on a good note and I throw her a fun bumper, she goes and gets it and drops it at my feet, I pick it up, do ear pinch, tell her to fetch and she does, lots of praise so i try it again, same result. EP'd again she grabs it, holds it, I give lots of praise and put her up, to end the session on a good note. This mornings session went pretty much the same way with 2 drops at my feet at the end and I'm frustrated to say the least.
I now realize that after all this typing I probably just need to slow back down, take away the fun bumpers and chill out, but any advice/encouragement would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading my vent.
Signed,
a frustrated newb
