Gun Dog Forum

Guys,
I have a 4 month old Vizsla who is a wonderful dog. I take him for a walk in the area I hunt at least once a week. At the end of the walk I have been throwing him bumpers and he retrieves them like a pro.
Today I switched to frozen quail. He went to pick the bird up and seemed to not like the feathers. It was raining today and the bird was still pretty frozen and wet. Any suggestions to how to get him to retrieve the frozen quail? or am I worried about nothing?
I am not a fan of the force fetching and in the video "Perfect start Perfect Finish" the dogs don,t seem to be so girly with the frozen birds!!!

Thaw the bird

And really don't overdo the use of frozen then thawed quail. Quail are small and don't hold up well to lots of abuse and a mangled soggy bird is likely to bring habits you don't want. A couple fresh kills or better yet a pigeon, and just enough to get them comfortable with the clean fresh dry feathers on a clean fresh dry bird. Then let them wait and anticipate getting a bird again when they are getting to the steady part of training.

Deroid, the "trained retrieve" does not have to be the aversive approach it used to be. It has come miles! The reason I mention it is because your dog could at any given time elect not to retrieve if not properly trained. Some guys don't really mind but if you drop your shot bird on the opposite bank of a long and winding, deep river or pond, (late season) you might wish you had trained the retrieve. I also agree that you should not use a frozen bird. This can on occasion lead to hard mouth. Using pigeons as suggested is a good idea, I think.
If you don't want to commit to a full bore trained retrieve, try this:
- Leave a short lead (with no loop on the end that is opposite the snap end) and let your dog run with it. Toss your bird a short distance BUT do not take this bird from your dog on his return to you. Tell him what a good boy he is and take him for a walk with that lead while he has the bird. The moment he drops the bird or puts it down, tension the lead so as to keep the dog from getting it again and simply put the bird way (in your pocket/bird bag). It doesn't take them long to figure out that they might want to hold onto the bird because if they put it down, they lose it. Once you've done a short walk, lift your dog up or at least his front legs, then remove the bird with a word like, "drop" or "out". Then praise the dog calmly. Repeat increasing your walking distance.
People are smarter than dogs right? So how long do you think it takes a dumb dog to figure out that every time he brings a bird to you, you rip him off for said bird?
If you answered people are smarter, then tell me why guys get a great performance from their (young) dog including a retrieve but months down the road ask," I don't know what happened to my dog? He used to retrieve flawlessly. ???"
Don't be in an all-fired-up rush to take that bird!

Thanks... I think you're right the problem is as with the wet Frozen bird. I like that idea thank you

Also, I think all sporting dogs should be force fetched! This is the final process to build in the fundamentals required to fetch on command...

mountaindogs wrote:Thaw the bird

And really don't overdo the use of frozen then thawed quail. Quail are small and don't hold up well to lots of abuse and a mangled soggy bird is likely to bring habits you don't want. A couple fresh kills or better yet a pigeon, and just enough to get them comfortable with the clean fresh dry feathers on a clean fresh dry bird. Then let them wait and anticipate getting a bird again when they are getting to the steady part of training.

Yep! Thaw until the feather's are completely thawed and the head/neck flips without breaking.

Timewise65 wrote:Also, I think all sporting dogs should be force fetched! This is the final process to build in the fundamentals required to fetch on command...

Well, uh, some might say that four months is a little young to be doing it.