Troubleshooting force fetching
Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2023 10:32 pm
Hey all, I'm relatively new around here (and dog training in general). I am hoping to pick the brains of the experienced folks on here who would be willing to share wisdom with a new guy.
I am working on force fetching our family dog, a 2.5 year old male standard poodle. His basic obedience is reliable. The end goal is quail hunting (primarily retrieving, some flushing), and perhaps waterfowl if we ever move back to waterfowl country.
I have been following the '10 minute retriever' book by John and Amy Dahl and I am going through force fetching.
He reliably will "hold". I was teaching fetch command and progressing slowly over a period of a couple weeks (1 session per day, right before I go to bed). I have been using the e-collar on the lowest stimulation (the ear pinch was not going over well originally, hence the change to the e collar) to teach fetch.
My method (from the book) is to give the "fetch" command and concurrently give a continous stimulation until he obeyed and took the bumper from my hand. I will randomly give commands with the absence of stimulation. I progressed (over about 2 weeks) to bringing the bumper to the ground. We do about a dozen reps per session. One day, he made a breakthrough and would take the bumper from the ground (as long as I had a finger on the bumper).
However, since the breakthrough, my dog has completely stopped obeying the fetch command. He will just stand and stay still when given the command (stimulation or not makes no difference) . I have tried a session with no stimulation (to reduce the pressure on the dog) with no success. Holding is still reliable. I have gone through 3 straight sessions where the dog is completely uninterested in the fetch command, up to this point.
Do any of you have advice for a newbie trying to learn how to train a gun dog? Any troubleshooting tips regarding my force fetching dilemma?
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I am working on force fetching our family dog, a 2.5 year old male standard poodle. His basic obedience is reliable. The end goal is quail hunting (primarily retrieving, some flushing), and perhaps waterfowl if we ever move back to waterfowl country.
I have been following the '10 minute retriever' book by John and Amy Dahl and I am going through force fetching.
He reliably will "hold". I was teaching fetch command and progressing slowly over a period of a couple weeks (1 session per day, right before I go to bed). I have been using the e-collar on the lowest stimulation (the ear pinch was not going over well originally, hence the change to the e collar) to teach fetch.
My method (from the book) is to give the "fetch" command and concurrently give a continous stimulation until he obeyed and took the bumper from my hand. I will randomly give commands with the absence of stimulation. I progressed (over about 2 weeks) to bringing the bumper to the ground. We do about a dozen reps per session. One day, he made a breakthrough and would take the bumper from the ground (as long as I had a finger on the bumper).
However, since the breakthrough, my dog has completely stopped obeying the fetch command. He will just stand and stay still when given the command (stimulation or not makes no difference) . I have tried a session with no stimulation (to reduce the pressure on the dog) with no success. Holding is still reliable. I have gone through 3 straight sessions where the dog is completely uninterested in the fetch command, up to this point.
Do any of you have advice for a newbie trying to learn how to train a gun dog? Any troubleshooting tips regarding my force fetching dilemma?
Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk