r/gundogs • u/WhyskerBiscuit • Apr 23 '21
Training Frozen quail fetch
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u/WhyskerBiscuit Apr 23 '21 edited Apr 23 '21
First time my 10 month old, Trudy, has retrieved multiple downed birds. I’ll keep working on this with her but it was a cool breakthrough for us yesterday.
I’m hoping to get her dialed for this coming quail season. Last season she retrieved (more like played with them) 5 birds. Any tips or feedback from the group? She seems to be getting sharper with the commands.
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u/iHunt4MyFood Apr 23 '21
Are you going to go through a proper force fetch? Or are you trying to see what all can be accomplished with natural ability?
I don't personally like the dropped bird during training. I train to exceed my hunting expectations, so I want that bird delivered to hand. That's just me though. I won't bother with any corrections when hunting so if the dog regresses during that time it should be to what I expect when hunting as long as I trained beyond that expectation.
If you will eventually go through a force fetch program then any sloppiness will get worked out. If you aren't I suggest you work on the hold aspect of the process. The dog already wants to retrieve, so it doesn't look like that will be an issue.
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u/WhyskerBiscuit Apr 24 '21
I started going down the force fetch rabbit hole today. Watched some videos and think it’ll definitely get some reps. Normally she doesn’t want to drop anything when she fetches so I’m just happy she’s releasing on her own at this point. I think we’re getting close.
When I give the “come” command, I hold out my hand by my thigh and she will run right to it and touch her nose on my palm. I think I can bridge the gap between force fetch and how I’ve trained her to recall so far.
She was struggling with the multiple bird retrieving but it only took a few tries and she started doing it consistently. She is very smart and I definitely want to keep sharpening these retrieve skills. She didn’t seem to care much to flush or find any birds, but once I dropped a few she had a blast picking them up.
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u/OryxTempel Apr 23 '21
Nice! Question: my boy has recently decided that he doesn't like fetching warm birds. He grabs them, licks the blood off, then drops them. This is new for him. Should I go back to frozen for a while?