Gun Dog Forum

I have a 2 year old female GSP. She has hunted a good 225 days these past two seasons. She has been on chukar, huns, sage grouse, sharp tail, pheasants, and quail including Mearns. She points, backs, swims and finds downed birds. HOWEVER she does not retrieve birds. She does retrieve thrown bumpers. I have an appointment with a bird dog trainer on March 3rd for evaluation. He indicated she might be to old to train to retrieve. Opinions please.

Nonsense. Maybe too old to elicit a really strong natural retrieve, but not too old to be trained a forced retrieve, with an emphasis on maybe. If the dog is willingly picking up bumpers you are on your way. Teaching hold and a forced retrieve does not seem a bridge too far for a competent pro or even a diligent amateur.

My GSP had the reverse pattern. He has zero interest in a bumper, and has no qualms finding and retrieving a bird no matter how far it flew and landed.

Garrison

gypsy wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:01 pm

I have a 2 year old female GSP. She has hunted a good 225 days these past two seasons. She has been on chukar, huns, sage grouse, sharp tail, pheasants, and quail including Mearns. She points, backs, swims and finds downed birds. HOWEVER she does not retrieve birds. She does retrieve thrown bumpers. I have an appointment with a bird dog trainer on March 3rd for evaluation. He indicated she might be to old to train to retrieve. Opinions please.

The trainer is full of beans. The fact that she has been on birds and not retrieved them will make your job more difficult as she has habit patterns ingrained, but they are not permanent habit patterns. I am quite certain others will agree. Surprising to get such an answer from a "bird dog trainer." There certainly are dogs that do not retrieve, and their owners don't mind, as they do track crippled birds and hold them. (I am not one of them.) But if this is extremely important to you, you can get it done. Not with this trainer, though.

They are never too old to train HOWEVER, some GSP's just plain hate to retrieve. They will die before they will retrieve a bird. They're all different and you won't know until the dog is evaluated. In general, if she relieves thrown bumpers she is showing you she does have the propensity to retrieve so I think you're chances are good.