Force Fetch... To do retriever training or not?

[themaninblack]

Hey I'm new to this forum and to be honest this whole gun dog training thing. I have been duck hunting for about 8 years now and finally decided to get me a bird dog. I have an 8 month old black lab that I have been building up to be a finished hunting/test dog. He knows all of the basic commands and loves to retrieve. Enough of that though. I just started force fetch 3 days ago with him and have been working off of the Freddy King videos on youtube because they are simple and straight to the point on what were trying to achieve in any certain video instead of jumping from one thing to another. Anyhow my question is when force fetching I have heard that you are not supposed to give your dog any "fun bumpers"... Does this mean that I should not work on retriever training with him during the process of force fetch? Should I not let him have anything to chew on? Should he not be able to play fetch in the house? Any input would be great and let the debating begin because I know there will be some different opinions on this.

[gonehuntin']

You can give him fun bumpers at the end of the training session AS LONG AS HE RETRIEVES THEM. If you get a no go, no more fun bumpers until FF is over. Chewing on bones won't hurt him. No retriever training until FF is over. No play retrieving in house. If he refuses a retrieve in the house it's the same as refusing in the field.

[Timewise65]

I have been hunting, training, and hunt testing my Golden Retrievers for over 25 years. I absolutely agree with the comments above...! Spot on, except I never play fetch of any kind (especially with bumpers) with my dogs when they are transitioning through FF.

Sounds like you are really off to a good start. I am not sure the FF program you have is a complete training course for training a field dog. If it is not, you should find a comprehensive training guide to use with your dog. Following force fetch, the progression in training to prepare you dog to run in hunt tests earning JH, SH, and eventually MH, requires a well structured training program.

Many are available and are not over the top expensive. I have Smartwork for Retrievers Volume one and two. It is written by Evan Graham it has worked well for me. But many others are available and most are very good.

Good Luck and have fun, the dog titles are fun, but it is the process of training and testing that is really the fun part...!

[themaninblack]

Guys thanks so much you both have answered my question in great detail. NO RETRIEVES WHATSOEVER! Got it! Thanks for yalls help!