Thread: Lab sort of problems

Originally Posted by Happy

She will be retrieving from ponds etc. when she gets wind of food there’s no calling her back Tried whistling her and calling no way she’s not interested I don’t run after her. She won’t get shot over as it’s all mai mai shooting and we stop shooting to do a retreive Be ducks only

It sounds like she is self-hunting. That is not her fault as it is something that she has been allowed to do, but it is now your problem and it is not easy to correct. My suggestion would be to go right back to basics and then build her up again. I would start with a whistle (Acme 210, 210.5 or 211.5). She needs to learn two whistle commands. First is recall, which is 3 peeps. Second is a stop command, that is one blast.

With the recall command, start off using it at home to call her for her food. Even if she is already there, walk around the yard and do a couple calls holding her food bowl with her following. Then transfer this to the park. What you want to do is get into her head. Let her go hunt and then go hide somewhere with a vantage point. What you want to do is make her think that she is lost. You want to make her anxious. You will see her looking around, ears back and running to try and find you. After she has been anxious for a while call her (three peeps). She will then start to equate the whistle as something positive. It has provided her with relief and recall will become a positive thing. But don’t over do it. Only do it once or twice a walk and don’t let her panic. Another trick is when she is at a distance, blow the recall whistle and when she looks up, run in the opposite direct as fast as you can. This will start to teach her if she does not come, she will be left behind.

With the stop command, ask her to sit and then immediately blow your whistle once. Over time she will equate the single blast with sit and stop. Then once she understands that you need to extend it out so that you can stop her at a distance. This is handy when you are hunting. One exercise I will do with my dogs is to send one out and then when they are at a distance I will stop him/her. Then I will throw a couple dummies either side. Then make them wait before directing them to a particular dummy. I will then send the other dog sitting beside me to the other dummy. This reinforces the stop whistle, steadiness and hand signals.

Dogs respond to direct stimulus. So timing is critical. If your dog takes off and does not come back to you the time to tell it off is not when it finally comes back to you. It will not equate the telling off with the failure to come back straight away, it will equate the telling off with coming back to you. So what do you do if she does not come back after you call her. Easy, get after her and sneak up on her, give her a fright and yell and run in the opposite direction. This will help to teach her that you are omnipresent.

The reason that I asked what sort of hunting you do is because that has implications for the training. I use my labs as retrievers, particularly when hunting waterfowl. But I also hunt over them when I am rough shooting or shooting walked-up. But if you are just shooting ducks you only need a non-slip retriever. She does not need to hunt. She only needs to retrieve shot game. So another option for you is to make her walk to heel all the time. Let her run free for a couple mins at the start, but then for the rest of your walk make her heel. Eventually you will modify her behaviour so that she stays close all the time. Which is good if you end up shooting upland game. A dog hunting at 5m, will be at 10m when it smells the pheasant and 15m when it flushes, so if your dog is already working at 25m you are going to have trouble making that shot.

Another option is try and desensitizer her and teach her that hunting for her is not going off by herself. For this she needs to stay beside you while being exposed to birds. That is not easy to arrange. So one option is to approach one of the upland game preserves to see if they have any openings for beaters. There are two near you in Hamilton. Tui Ridge in Raglan and Leigh Barton in Cambridge. They will be looking for people at the moment. Basically you will walk with a bunch of people in a line flushing pheasants over the guns. There may be some opportunities to work your dog, but it will be a good opportunity for her to be exposed to game without being asked to do anything.

I have never used a shock collar. I approach training on the basis that I want the dog to work for me because they want to, not because of a negative consequence. I have friends that do use them and all the dogs seem to learn is that the collar can shock. So when they don’t have the collar they tend to revert back.

Finally, sorry about the long post.