Gun Dog Forum

My Brittany used to be a soft mouthed retriever.. It was her best asset. She started getting hard mouthed and wanted to gobble up the quail. I started having to fight her for the quail.

I swatted her nose to get her to drop a quail and then things went down hill. I'm afraid I've ruined her retrieve. She started dropping the quail a couple feet away from me, then farther, and now, she doesn't want to really retrieve it.

She doesn't even want to retrieve toys any more..

Help!!!! Have I ruined her? What can I do?

Dealing with a dogs "natural" retrieve is touchy, as you have found out. The best way to deal with "hard mouth" is to work on "Come". If a dog is coming in at a good pace they cannot mouth or munch a bird. A dog has to slow down or stop to munch a bird, so speeding them up is the cure. Unfortunaly you may have stopped her desire to keep holding it as she did not like getting swatted. I will work a dog on this by working "Come" with a pretty good collar nick, without the bird. Give COME command and quickly follow up with a good nick. You want her flying in to you, then loads of praise. When you feel she is complying as you want, then put the Come command on her as soon as she picks up a bird. If she slows down give her a 'LOW' nick as a reminder. If she drops the bird don't worry about it. You are working on come. Do not worry about the bird, go get it. Next retrieve give Come command as soon as she picks up the bird. You want to give excessive praise when she comes in so she knows what you want. If the dog just does not want the bird since her swat, than the best cure is FFing. To work on the retrieve thru collar correction, the dog needs a hi drive to get a bird.