Majic just does not get it at all I have tried loads of things she gets to the point where she sniffs it and turns away so I have to do some training that she knows to get her spirits up
I shall exlian how we tend to teach them in the gundog world, how this equates to obedience I'm not sure but certainly we have them come in, hold their head up and them take the item in just same way really, so its got to be closely linked. To give an idea too, I had a working test bitch run in our breed club open shows Beginner Obedience last Jan having never done it before and won, scoring full points for her retrieve so must be pretty much the same idea...
Get comfy in a chair and take a tennis ball or something small and soft. Something you keep speacially for this, its not a toy, its a training tool even if its some old socks knotted together.
Call her to you and sit her up infront of you whilst you sit in the chair. Stroke her chest and under her jaw telling her she is good. Get her settled. Then take the item and gently and slowly hold it out towards her. If she has any labrador in her likely she will grab at it, or at least stretch towards taking it from you. As she takes it from you tell her 'hold good girl hold hold gooood girl' just literally for the blink of an eye, then remove the item from her. She may when she has taken the item try and get up and move away with it and when you say 'no sit' likely as not she will drop it. But start again, sit her up, hold out the item gently....if she is reluctant to take it you have picked the wrong item OR you need to kiss it and fuss it and make her jealous of it - just quietly - not a big display, do all this calmly and quietly.
Let her take the item three times from you max. No more. Then praise her and finish. Do this a few times a day until she is willingly taking it from you and holding it for just a few seconds.
DO NOT GRAB AT IT when you take it from her. Its better she drops it than you grab at it. don't remove your hands from the area of her head so she doesn' start to assicate your hands coming towards her as the release code.
Try desperately not to use the word 'hold' as she drops it. With the right item few labradors will willingly take an item then IMMEDIATELY dump it on the floor. Most will have a thoughtful few seconds and tend to only drop when your hands shoot towards them.... so don't let them. Let her take it and progress to rubbing her chest saying 'ohhhh hold....gooooddd' they are all the same sortof words and good for getting them to hold.
I also teach when young 'what have YOU got!!!!' and I do this with a biscuit. So I look lovingly at the biscuit and squint at the pup from the corner of my eye and say 'ohhhhh what have YOU got'.... and they know I have something for them. Hold the item out and they take it immediately. This then relates through to taking from me when I start to teach hold.
They WANT to take something from me. The fact I start with food does NOT make them hard mouthed, dogs are smart enough to know what is and isn't to be taken as a eatable treat.
Continue until you feel you can try standing up, handing her something to take then IMMEDIATELY heel her off quite quickly saying 'ohhh hold, good girl, what have you got, hold, good girl, hold'... etc. then have her sit and rub her chest then hands upwards and take the item.
Hands come UP from the chest to take an item NOT down from the heavans or they will start to drop.
I hope this starts to help, its only the first stages but its start. Using a retrieve to teach hold doesn' help or often work. The gallpoing out bit winds them up when a hold should be calm, and controlled and quiet when being taught so they hear the words used and aren't just dumping it so you can throw it again and they get that adrenaline rush.
Thanks Di very helpful I will need to know this as hopefully she will start field trial training next spring, we're giving up the obedience and doing field trials instead thats if she likes it, can't see she won't though.
Apparently they very rarely have chocs doing the training
A lot more chocs are training now than 10 or 15 years ago.
Call it 'gundog training' just to be pernickety. Field Trials will almost certainly not be something you are aiming towards but working tests will possibly be if you fancy a competitive side to your gundog work. The work towards making a working test dog, a good shooting companion or just a well behaved motivated dog is termed 'gundog training' just a tip when you call to get some details in from the various clubs.
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