Shed dog - deliver to hand?

wango tango

5 year old buck +
I’ve got an eight-year-old yellow lab. She’s a great dog in so many ways. Been working a bit with her on shed hunting, she can easily find sheds by scent and grab them but will not deliver to hand. I don’t really want to force fetch her per se, mainly because I’m not confident in myself I know it’s kind of unpleasant. Any tips or tricks to get a dog to deliver a shed to hand?


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Wango, do some searching on the interwebs for force fetching. Many different ways of doing it that dont have to be unpleasant. I know when i forced my lab he would usually beat me out to the table for our daily sessions.
The key is using just enough force to get them to do what you want then follow with a ton of praise when he does it. That way they forget the bad quickly and key on the good. Unless your lab is a stubborn blockhead it should be an easy process.
 
No way I would ever force fetch a dog. To many thing could go wrong to produce an outcome you don’t want. Like the dog is afraid of antlers. Especially an 8 year old.

use bacon.....
 
Its actually quite easy to do without the wrong outcome. Just need patience. Find a good ,reputable trainer and talk to them. I was lucky and found a very good local guy who trained me to train the dog. Best money I've ever spent.
But that being said, i must have missed the 8 year old part of the original post. I would agree, probably not worth the effort,and easier to go the long route and bribe her!
 
Hate to jump in and piggyback, but there seems like some knowledgeable guys here soooo.

My 1 & 1/2 golden retriever has a great nose. Loves chasing birds around. Her first summer I was working in the yard and she brought me a live hen pheasant. Must of plucked it off a nest nearby.

Anyway, she loves to play with things, gophers, the chickens. Whatever she can catch.

Problem is she thinks shes found a play friend. Then when she inevitably kills it. She wants nothing to do with it. Won't touch it.

Same goes for birds in field. She loves to flush. Will watch it fall, run over, pin it down, sniff it, look at me, and walk away.

She will dummy retrieve in the yard for hours. But for having retrevier in her name. She seems to have a flaw in that department.

Any suggestions...
Also, novice trainer so any tips appreciated.

Have tried. Tieing wings to dummy.
Also I give her the wings off birds to chew on. Her favorite thing in the world. So she dosnt mind having them in her mouth.

Just will not pick up a dead bird.

Think I might have scarred her a bit one day when we butchered chickens for the fall. She watched her "friends" get there heads looped off and stuffed into a cone. She loved going out to check up on them everyday. Then poof, dead. Probably not the case but a theory.

Hoping she grows out of it with a bit more age.
 
Get a dead bird and a helper with bumpers. Take turns throwing bumpers for the dog. Kind of in a frenzy, then mix the dead bird in every now and then and don’t change your demeanor. Nothing to see here. Make it a game.

don’t know if it will work but that’s what I would try.
 
Dogs like food. For both the antler dog and the pheasant dog I would recommend finding their favorite snack (hotdog, cheese, venison jerky, bread) and use that as the reward when they do what you want. Keep the retrieves extremely short initially until they realize bringing back the antler or rooster gets them a treat.

My golden retriever hates the taste of ducks and woodcock. It was extremely frustrating until I took the time to get her used to those birds. My dog likes slices of wonder bread more than she hates the taste of ducks and woodcock though, so once she learned a retrieve is worth a slice of bread things turned around quickly. Keep the training sessions short and fun and the dogs will be retrieving antlers and roosters in no time.
 
what I've done with situations like that is take a dead bird and get the dog whipped into a frenzy with it. Swing it over her head, get her jumping for it then throw it a very short distance, once the dog goes after it follow, as soon As the dog even attempts to pick it up, praise the hell out of her and grab it. Repeat, repeat repeat and then repeat. Every time give her more chance to pick it up further but never ever let her drop it.
Before you or the dog knows it she will be picking them up like she's been doing it all along.
Everytime she retreives anything praise ,praise praise. The dog will start understanding thats what you want.
My biggest thing with hunting dogs is no toys, ever! Squeaky toys especially. They only teach hard mouth.
 
I have trained a lot of dogs over the years for a lot of different things even field trialed a couple, some dogs turned out OK, some not, a few turned out great. Have had hunting dogs all my life, I still consider myself a novice but do know what works for me.

Every dog is different, some pick stuff up quick some never do and the rare ones teach you.

I’m not into giving a dog treats for doing what they should be doing anyway, the reward should be my praise, you cannot praise a dog to much while training for doing something right...over exaggerate it. I disagree with squeaky toys making a dog hard mouth. Some dogs just are some aren’t, dogs love squeaky toys let them have them. You can sometimes get a dog to soften up some with force fetching and telling them “easy” over and over till they kind of get what you’re saying. The more time you spend with your dog the stronger the bond, dogs have a short vocabulary for people speak use the same commands every time don’t deviate.

wango tango, if your dog is dropping short start backing up and calling to her while holding your hand out and saying “here, here, here” as she is coming to you just keep backing up faster until she is on you then take the object from her mouth fast and praise the hell out of her. Do it over and over until she gets it. Repetition is the key your not going to work a grown dog to much…do it for days until she does what you want. Have her practice sitting just holding a shed in her mouth, when you remove it make over her for doing a good job. Dogs can read body language as good as they can smell…if/when you start getting frustrated or mad stop….you have to keep it fun for both of you. All of the sudden it will click and come together if your dog has any sense.

trampledbyturtles, I wouldn’t let her eat dead birds or old wings, the playing with live birds and blood isn’t anything that would hurt her retrieving sessions with you.
Stop using dummies altogether for now. Start using frozen birds only…she will get it, when she does good on frozen switch to fresh birds until she does what you want. She is going to want to retrieve and play with and make you happy. After the light goes on in her head and she is retrieving real bids like she should you can go back to throwing dummies and she will be fine with either.

Just my two cents…….
 
H2O i agree with everything, but 1 thingrepectfully disagree with the squeaky toys.
A dog grabs one and it makes a cool noise, next thing you know he's trying to make everything make that sound.
 
H2O i agree with everything, but 1 thingrepectfully disagree with the squeaky toys.
A dog grabs one and it makes a cool noise, next thing you know he's trying to make everything make that sound.

It's fine to disagree brother! Like I said I am no expert by any means.
My current bird fetcher has the softest mouth I've ever seen with a hunting dog and she plays with squeaky toys all long, has a bin full of them. I've always let dogs have all the toys they want.
 
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