Totally Gundogs

Gundog training and fieldwork for all breeds of gundog.

Building and maintaining retrieving desire in your gundog

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Building retrieving desireYou have probably come across a gundog that has little interest in retrieving.

This sad state of affairs is often ‘man-made’.

There is much you can do to avoid your gundog losing his passion for retrieving.  Let’s take a look.

The instinct is there

Gundogs that have been bred to retrieve have an instinctive urge or ‘drive’ to do so.   In particular,  they have an urge to carry out the first part active of the retrieve:  the chase.

This drive to chase after and ‘capture’  a thrown object is very strong in most working bred retrievers and spaniels.   Almost as common is a strong urge to ‘pick up and carry’  that object in their mouths.

The urge to return to their handler with the object is stronger in some dogs than others,  and often needs developing and encouraging.

Get that chase established

The most important urge is the ‘chasing’ behaviour,  because without that,  we have no chance of a retrieve.[wp_ad_camp_1]The desire to chase must be there inside your dog.

This desire probably cannot be taught.

A dog that retrieves without ‘desire’  is just going through the motions and is liable to be a disappointment.  

He is also likely to give up if retrieves are difficult or challenging.

Your dog will need that ‘desire’ more than ever when he has to struggle up a steep bank, jump over a gate or stone wall, or swim across a fast flowing river,  with a heavy bird in his mouth.

Your first priority is therefore to nurture and build that ‘desire to chase’  the ball, or dummy that you throw. The pickup and return can be developed at a later date.

Steadiness

One way to damage the all important retrieving desire in your puppy is to make him sit and wait before he is allowed to chase.

When puppies are small their attention span is short.  If you make your puppy wait,  all that passion for fetching your ball may be lost.   He needs to chase after it right now,  as soon as you throw it.

So don’t be tempted to introduce steadiness to a young puppy that is just learning to enjoy retrieving.  Later on,  when you have nurtured his ‘desire’ from a tiny flickering flame into a great big bonfire,  then is the time to introduce steadiness.

Practicing too often

If your puppy loves to retrieve it is tempting to throw retrieves for him every day.  Even several times a day.   But familiarity breeds contempt.  If retrieving is always available,  retrieving soon loses its lustre.

Put the dummy away

Wait a few days and try again.     If you have steadied your dog and he loses interest in retrieving you may even need to let him start ‘running in’ again to re-awaken his desire.

Deprivation increases desire

We want the gundog to become a retrieving addict.  Get him hooked then ration the retrieves so that he is always desperate for his next ‘fix’.

Once you are confident you have a gundog that retrieves with a passion second to none,  you can move on and steady him up.   Always bearing in mind that ‘deprivation increases desire’.

Moving on

As retrieving practice gets more complicated and retrieves become longer,  the dog is less likely to get bored,  and you will be able to build up the number of retrieves that you can give him without diminishing his passion.

Once he begins retrieving real game, his passion will intensify further.   Just remember to ration retrieves in the early days to avoid sickening your puppy of the whole process.

Your dog?

Have you managed to increase your dog’s retrieving desire?   Share your tips in the comments below!

If you enjoy my articles, you might like my new book: The Happy Puppy Handbook – a definitive guide to early puppy care and training.

Comments

  1. My Labrador has a strange pastime near a river or loch. She collects stones and places them neatly on the bank. She will put her head completely underwater to get a particular stone. She retrieves all the normal ways a lab should but this habit interests me . I do not throw the stones for her she collects them herself.

  2. I have a 8 month old Spanish Water Dog that I would like to train to retrieve waterfowl and eventual indicate game for upland hunting. Out of ignorance, I made the mistake of playing tug with her (which made giving me the dummy difficult), steadying her too soon (which damaged her desire) and over played fetch at a young age (which exacerbated the issue). Now, I get her to chase the dummy, throw it a short distance and only do a few retrieves at a time. It seems to be helping and she’s becoming more enthused. I hope I can turn her into a fetching addict, though I’m worried that because I made these mistakes she’ll always have a sour taste towards fetching and never have a strong desire. Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated!

    PS: I wish I would have found this site earlier because everything on here is right on point and super helpful!

  3. Hi pippa, we recently got a six week old yellow lab. We’ve had him for about 5 days and I’ve already started with a few basic obedience commands like come and no. I’m curious at what age you suggest actually focusing on obedience training. I don’t want to start him off too early and him get worn out. Any advice would be great. Love from the States✌❤?

  4. Our 5 month old lab puppy loves retrieving, he’ll do it all day long if we would let him at home and the park. He does get distracted at the field where there is a lot of long grass, trees, shrubs and wildlife smells, he’ll do the chase and sometimes pick up the ball but usually gets distracted after this. Any advice to help gratefully accepted please.

  5. Hi Pippa
    I have a 11 month old working cocker who loves to chase birds, leaves, shadows – anything other than what I throw! I can some times get her to play fetch in the house or garden for maybe 5 retrieves before she wonders off sniffing and doing her own thing. She seems happiest for longest doing ‘steadiness training’. She may chase a ball thrown for another dog, but won’t try to retrieve, but often will seem uninterested. Any ideas on how I can nurture her retrieving instinct?
    Gayle

  6. Hi, at what age would you normally assume a retrieving instinct has become embedded? I have a 7 month old GSP who loves to retrieve, i am quite careful not too do too many with him so he does not get bored. I wondered at what age i can stope worrying about this or whether i should always have this in the back of my mind also wondering when or how i will know when i should be introducing steadiness? At the moment i let him run into 90% of retrieves just making him sit for the odd one.

  7. Hi I have a 6 month old chocolate lab and she seems to be getting bored with playing fetch and not interested while at the dog park. She will chase it and pick it up. I how do I help her??

  8. Hi Pippa, I have a four month old extremely well bred working black lab pup that I intend to train for picking up. I have trained two others before with no problems. When throwing an object for my pup to retrieve, she loves to chase it, grabs it, but then drops it and runs back to me excited without it! How can I encourage her to bring it back? She is more likely to bring back a soft toy rather than a tennis ball. Should I carry on with the soft toy for now to install the retrieve before asking her to bring back a ball? Thank you for any hints you can give me.
    Helen

  9. Hi Pippa.
    Sorry for the late reply I should have explained myself a lot better.
    While I have been training Archie with the dummy launcher he is steady and will not move until he has had the command, but I am sure that when he is amongst the other dogs it would be a different story.
    I thought of keeping him on a lead until he is settled but some of the drives have very dense cover.
    I am probably expecting too much too soon but with this being my first Lab pup I’m not sure.

    Regards
    John

  10. Hi Pippa,
    Recently signed up I have a 17 month old fox red lab dog still entire, I was going to start him beating / picking up this season at my local shoot because he is really keen but am a bit wary I don’t want to spoil him too soon.
    Sometimes he can be too eager and I wouldn’t want to damage the goodwill I have got with the shoot and keeper so I am leaving it till next season any ideas or solutions for an over enthusiastic young dog?

  11. Hi Pippa,

    thank you so much for your blog. I have a 3-1/2 year old Golden named Jazz. She is great retrieving in the water but no way to make her work in the field. In best cases, she runs to the dummy then take a snif and walks away. I tried to add some rabbit skin and scent but to no avail. Help !

  12. I have a year old labrador/springer cross.
    She will retrieve a ball all day but last weekend i took her out hunting for the first time. She picked up a shot rabbit, ran away with it and eventually buried it. Very impressive but not what I wanted.
    How can I get her to treat game the same.

  13. Hi Pippa, love your blog and thank you for sharing all your knowledge! We have a 9 month old working cocker who has an extremely high drive to chase but will not deliver. She was excellent at delivery when she was younger and we fear we have now done something to make her change her mind! We have tried going back to basics and now try to treat her if she ever does bring it back but she really isnt interested. She would much rather have what ever she has chased down than give it to us…..help!! 🙂

    • Hi Lindsay, thanks for your kind comments. Glad you like the blog. You may need to teach a formal hold and deliver under controlled conditions. Check out this article, and drop into the forum for some help and support (spaniels are welcome too 🙂 ). Pippa

  14. I am devastated by the fact that my well trained lab, who is great on dummy retrieves to hand experienced live game on Saturday. Refused to deliver – rather picked up and wanted to keep it, shaking the bird about and picking at feathers – total disaster. Is this curable?

    • Hi Nick, many dogs require quite careful introduction to real game, and all dogs need plenty of experience on cold dead game, before being introduced to runners. Check out this article. Hopefully the behaviour you observed is just a result of your dog’s inexperience and perhaps a rushed introduction to this new skill. Pippa

  15. Hi Pippa,
    I hope that you can give me some advice,I have a 3 year old Labrador(bitch)I enter her in gun dog tests, and up until about 3 months ago she was realy very good, and very keen,now in a test situation, when I send her off to get either a blind or a seen dumie,sometimes she will go without any sticking,but I never know when she will just refuse to go,can you please give me any advice on how to overcome this problem?thankyou in advance Lynne.

    • Hi Lynne,

      I don’t compete, but it sounds as though your dog has become disillusioned with, or anxious about, the test situation for some reason. Your best bet is probably to talk this through with some experienced and successful competitors. Good luck, Pippa

  16. How do you get a pup with seemingly no real panache to retrieve? Think I’ve exacerbated the problem by trying to steady her when she was retrieving far to early!

  17. All is not lost. She is still just a baby. You have all spring and summer now to get her ready for the next shooting season. 🙂

  18. I haven’t, still trying desperately as I’d love to pick up with my Lab bitch! If you feel that you’d like to give us a free training session in Scotland then you’re very welcome!

    Cheers