Some help with my labs

[njones125]

Hello, I have a one and half year old male yellow lab and a one year old female. Last season the female was not able to hunt but after some training my male turned out amazing on both ducks/geese and pheasant. We made the mistake of training the two dogs together and because she can not keep up she is seeming to lose some of her drive while training. I have recently been training them seperately to try and get some back. Am i making a mistake in doing this since i will be hunting them together. These are the first dogs i have ever trained for hunting and basically followed what i read in books and dvds. Any advice on getting her drive up or any other good ideas for training would be great. Thanks

[Dashin Gun Dogs]

I have a couple of questions. What do you mean she loses her drive in training? What do you mean by she cant keep up?
I don't train dogs together, since training programs are individualized. I train together after they are "completely trained", and then I teach them to honor another dog.

[K9luke]

Are you pushing her or training to hard/long ?
Allways end a training session on a good note and when the dog is still self motivated and wanting more !

[njones125]

No I wouldnt say that I am pushing her or training her to hard or long. I usually do a half hour or less of training (which consists of obediance and retrieves) per session and then a light run or some other kind of exercise. And what I mean by losing her drive is tonight for example I had her out doing water retrieves on a duck dummy, she retrieved it once and then would swim out hit it with her nose and leave it. And what i meant by not keeping up is when we got her as a pup my male was somewhat trained, and she would always follow him and do what he did so we let her mock him as far as retrieving and as they got older if i for example threw a bumper he was always faster and got to it first, so im thinking possibly thats why she is not quite as excited about retrieving. I know I have probably made some mistakes being the first hunt training I have done. Any suggestions, I have access to live or dead real birds, do you think that would help?

[RoostersMom]

If she's over a year old, it sounds like she need a force fetch program. She only retrieves when she wants to. That's unacceptable. I would train them separately for sure and I'd FF her at the earliest opportunity. You're just teaching bad habits if you send her on a retrieve and she continually refuses. That or stop training "fetch" altogether and work on some upland bird work. But if it were me, she'd be starting FF training tomorrow.

[njones125]

Thank you for your guys input. I have been thinking about FF for awhile now but I am a little skeptical on doing it for the only reason that I have heard a few times that some dogs will hold a grudge but I do have a video on FF and it sounds like if you do it right and be sure your dog completely understands before moving on it will be ok. That will probably be my next step. Do you think there would be any problem with trying a real bird on her first, and then do the FF or should I just progress straight to the FF?

[Dashin Gun Dogs]

Well Labs usually aren't the type of dogs to hold a grudge. Get your commands down. When you say "sit" or blow a whistle to "sit", the dog should immediately drill its butt to the ground. When you are to that point, then you can start your FF program.
As for always following the other dog, she is not independent. I would try and hunt her seperately this season, and let her build her confidence.
Good Luck and Have Fun. Keep your training session 5-7 min, and she will move through this much easier.