Fast pick-up, slow retrieving!!!

[MichaelH]

Hi guys,

I have a problem with a Labrador. I do field trials with it. It marks well, runs out at speed, swims the correct lines etc. My only problem is its retrieving. It comes back at about half the speed as on the way to the fallen bird! It will often take the lazy route back also. Its like it knows there's no need to rush as its got the bird. The dog is 6 years old and this is the only problem with it preventing it from winning trials.

The dog is E-Collar shy and does everything as it should when the collar is on but tentatively so I doubt it will speed up the dog by zapping it. Any suggestions????

Cheers,

Michael.

[EvanG]

Michael,

E-collar or not, you can't force style. You can speed up a response in the moment with an e-collar, but that isn't style, it's avoidance. Secondly, each dog has its own style about returns. I'm not assuming to know how this dog's return has always been. But at age 6 I wonder if you're apt to make any substantive difference over the long haul with any training technique.

If you recondition him/her to "Here", your follow up should include some time away from trials in order to establish steady expectations of a new standard. But I question the wisdom of doing so.

EvanG

[mmduncan]

I dont think a dog thats a little slower is always a bad thing. Some dogs are complete maniacs and others are a little slower and methodical. When you say he's taking the lazy route back to you do you mean he's getting out of the water and running the bank?

[mountaindogs]

If your sure he won't eat the bird take off in the opposite direction as soon as he picks it up and run (I'd be lazy and use a 4-wheeler faster and louder...) away about another 100 yards. The slower he is the further he has to return. If he speeds up following you praise him and stop & turn around towards him again....
And here work as mentioned. Better yet, You can do here drills with a bumper being held with no actual retrieve. You know, give him the bumper and command hold, then stay him and walk away, and call back to you. If he does not return fast, run backwards until he speeds up then slow down and praise him. Then again. There is no going to get the bumper, just holding and bringing it back. Then when he does a good return give him a short play toss with you release command as you throw. At that age steadiness is not an issue for you I'd bet. And going to get becomes the reward for bring back right. And stay short so he doesn't have long to come back and a chance to mess up again before the next drill.

If he is ecollar shy - it sounds like a confidence issue. Like he is creeping back worried about geting in trouble. so I think positive only reptition drill might be good. But as always - I am not seeing the dog so I could be way off.

[crackerd]

If your sure he won't eat the bird take off in the opposite direction as soon as he picks it up and run (I'd be lazy and use a 4-wheeler faster and louder...) away about another 100 yards. The slower he is the further he has to return. If he speeds up following you praise him and stop & turn around towards him again....

This and your follow-on advice aren't necessarily bad - for puppies. Evan has spelled out the situation as applies to a retriever running field trials, style might or mightn't eschew substance in this case, but you're not getting a retriever to speed up its return if the drive's not already there or if it's been taken out of the dog by heavy-handed training. In retriever trials (as well as retriever training), dogs are apt to return on the fly because they have another (and another and possibly another) bird to be sent for, and every second they use trundling back with a bird takes away from their memory of where the other birds have fallen.

But I have to ask if the original poster is actually running retriever field trials or hunt tests which he might've mistakenly alluded to as FTs, or if his concern has something to do with "pointing" Labs? Because if he were running FTs - retriever FTs - especially with a 6-year-old dog, he would already have had the answer to his question imparted to him by his training partners or fellow competitors. Field trial Labs don't stumble back with a bird, they fly on the return for the above reasons. And a field trial Lab wouldn't be "collar-shy," I can almost guarantee that.

MG

[mountaindogs]

In retriever trials (as well as retriever training), dogs are apt to return on the fly because they have another (and another and possibly another) bird to be sent for, and every second they use trundling back with a bird takes away from their memory of where the other birds have fallen.

MG

Yes, I wasn't even thinking about that but of course that is very true. I guess then it would support my gut feeling that a e-collar (or handler of ecollar to be correct!) created the slow return and that the slow returner is worried and cautious about something.