Hard Mouth on the retrieve

If you haven’t had a chance to read my article on my free training tips web page at http://brittanys.com/ , give it a read.  It might help you however, if you have a dog that retrieves but chews up your bird, read on.  At this point, I think it more important to figure out how you arrived at that point.

First thing we should discuss is ‘how did my dog get to this point?’.

Besides being undernourished and other health related issues let’s assume the dog is in good health.  Hungry dogs do eat birds!

Everything starts with the ‘rules of posession’ which begin on the first retrieve.  We quickly take the object from the pup as soon as pup arrives.  This sends the wrong message.  You want to share the object with your dog.  If the only satisfaction your dog gets on the retrieve is to hold it briefly, you are setting yourself up for possession issues.

I strongly believe that the rules of posession can set up concerns later down the road.  Share your dogs retrieve by gently stroking him when he arrives with the object.  Don’t immediately take the object.  Praise him for a job well done while he holds it in his mouth.  This reward encourages him to bring it back over and over so that he can receive the praise.

Another thing is ‘what object’ to play fetch with.   I believe in using firm objects that discourage chewing.  Not a hard treat but maybe a bumper with knobbies on it like DT Systems offers.  They have one that can be inflated with a football airpump.  Inflate to firmly.  Use an object that only you two share together and no other time which is why I say “no toys!”.

So now we’ve discussed early retrieves and how to share the retrieve as well as firmness of the object.

Now lets talk about the chewing of soft objects.  I have always given my pups chew toys and they usually end up taking the stuffing out.  Some folks may say that it encourages chewing but I don’t believe that.  If anything, it makes soft objects seem routine.  Of course I never play tug-o-war with my dog! 

When I move to birds I start with a hard frozen quail.  It’s better to have two that are hard frozen so that when the first one begins to soften in about 2 to 3 minutes, you can put it up and use the second one. 

Don’t allow your pup to start with a soft, fresh quail.  Especially one that is shot.  The quail is a fragile bird to begin with and we don’t pup to get a taste of entrails and such.

The trained retrieve or ‘force fetch’ works for hard mouth so if you are dealing with this issue it may be too late to go back and start over with hard objects but give it a try anyway.  Start all over as if pup has not been retrieving.

If that doesn’t work, I have a couple of techniques that I will discuss in a future post.  These are techniques that if they fail, the worse that can happen is that you have to force train anyway.

Allow a trained professional to perform the trained retrieve as it is not an easy task and not for the faint of heart.  You must follow through with the entire program because if you stop, you’ve lost.

Take care!

Dave