puppy mouths retrieving dummy

wems2371 · Post by **wems2371** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:20 pm

I have a 7.5 month old gsp. She will fetch from my hand, off the table, off the floor with no hesitance. She has a nobby plastic dummy, wooden retreiving dumbell, canvas dumbell wrapped with wing, plain wing, and we practice with lots of stuff from shopvac tubes, baskets, buckets etc. She has tendancy to mouth/bite/roll around the item in her mouth during a whoa or even if we heel with the dummy in her mouth. The only bird we've worked with is a frozen pheasant, which she has a hard time grasping due to it's size and being frozen. She fiddlefarts with it also, rummaging thru the feathers and nipping at it several times before bringing it back to us. Is this due to being a puppy or is this a sign of trouble to come? Does anyone have any suggestions to nip this in the bud? Thanks. Denise

gonehuntin' · Post by **gonehuntin'** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 5:54 pm

I'd say it's just the sign of a loose mouthed dog. I don't put up with it. Either give her a total force fetch course or a thorough course on hold only.

Lab Man · Post by **Lab Man** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 11:28 pm

I would force fetch the dog. That will fix the problem. Good luck

bean1031 · Post by **bean1031** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:23 pm

I dont know about FF fixing it. I had a pro trainer FF my dog with me and she still rolls it around in her mouth and holds it loosely.

gonehuntin' · Post by **gonehuntin'** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:21 am

bean1031 wrote:I dont know about FF fixing it. I had a pro trainer FF my dog with me and she still rolls it around in her mouth and holds it loosely.

Then either he didn't do a thorough job on the dog or you're not enforcing what the dog was taught. If the dog is the same now as when you got him back, the pro didn't do his job. If the dog was good when first back from the pro and sloppy now, then you haven't reinforced what was taught by the pro.