Puppy Quirks - Won't retrieve ducks on land

[KP-Skagit]

I have a golden retriever pup who is a little under one year old. I have been training her myself (Wolters Water Dog). Started her on upland birds and she is a beast, tracking covey's of chukar a hundred+ yards with the wind, retrieving sailed birds hundreds of yards down in the canyons.

Last week I finally got her on ducks with some interesting results. If the bird falls in the water she will retrieve it no problem and has done so without incident on a couple dozen birds now. If it falls on the land she will find it but not pick it up. She behaves like she thinks she is supposed to be looking for something else.

To remedy this I have tried a dummy with duck wings taped to it. She has no problem retrieving this on land. Toss out a dead duck, no dice.

I have also tried tossing a duck in the water, letting her bring it back, and then tossing it on land. No dice. If the duck is floating in 1/2" of water she will grab it. If its high and dry, even by a small margin, no dice.

I also tried training her alongside my dad's older dog who retrieves in the water or on land with no issues. Ruby still would not mess with the duck on land.

Has anyone dealt with this in a pup? How did you cure it?

All in all I think this is just a phase that will likely work itself out with reps. I had another phase a couple months ago where she would not touch a dummy at all after retrieving and handling great for a month straight.

[2MANY]

Simple.
Get some juvenile live ducks(small is good).
If necessary clip the flight wings and nails (so they cant hurt her)..
let her run em down and be aggressive with them(you need a bird that can fly about 15' a couple of times before she gets it).
Once in her mouth be the most excited dude you can be.
Crouch down low, encourage her, while backing away.


After running down and tackling some ducks on land and loving it things will change.
Water Dog is a killer book.

[tank21]

Sounds like force fetching lessons are in order.  Careful though, timing is key from when you pinch and they open their mouth.  Exactly as they open....you release the ear.  "Oh, I open and take the bird, the pain stops."

Or maybe give her some more time...she's still young and sounds like you are having a good time with her.  Keep the fun!

[vandeman17]

I had similar with my folks dog when she was young. It actually got to where she would drop the birds as soon as she got on to dry land as well which was another problem in and of itself. My uncle and cousin are trainers and what they had me do for both issues was to be along side her either when she got out of the water or got to the bird on dry land. When she dropped it getting out of the water or wouldn't pick it up on dry land, I would pick the bird up, put it in her mouth and make her hold it until I gave the command to drop. Once that became easy, I would make her hold, take a few steps back, have her come to heel position with bird in mouth and then release. Eventually work my way to where I walked away a decent distance and called her to me with bird still in mouth. Didn't take long and she had no issues on both fronts. Or course, treats and a lot of praise, pets, encouragement were used each time she did what I asked. 

[2MANY]

Goldens are soft dogs.
Personally I would be careful on the force fetching.
Just my 2 cents.

[Karl Blanchard]

Simple.
Get some juvenile live ducks(small is good).
If necessary clip the flight wings and nails (so they cant hurt her)..
let her run em down and be aggressive with them(you need a bird that can fly about 15' a couple of times before she gets it).
Once in her mouth be the most excited dude you can be.
Crouch down low, encourage her, while backing away.


After running down and tackling some ducks on land and loving it things will change.
Water Dog is a killer book.

  my old female was that way with geese. One day we had a cripple get away. Long story short we searched a sage flat for an hour before we ended up in a high speed chase. I was so tickled to find that bird and she really had to work for it. That one bird changed her into a dry land goose fetching machine.

[KP-Skagit]

Thanks for the input guys! I was also thinking a wing broke running bird would help her. In fact, her first water retrieve was one that dove on her for about 10 minutes until she caught it. Her first chukar was also wing broke and running like they do. That one also taught her not to drop them unless it was in my hand.

I will also look around for some live ducks I can use for training. That might be a little easier than trying to intentionally wing some birds.

It is good to know that others have dealt with this. Ultimately I think birds are the best teacher and just need to get her some more experience. She is a very smart dog so I think she will come around.

[frazierw]

We had a dog like this, he didnt like the down in his mouth.  He would grab them on the water, but when they were on land, he would pick around and finally grab it by the wing...sometimes. 

[2MANY]

Live birds and more live birds is always the answer to raising a bird dog.

If dummies were the answer they would call them dummy dogs.

[ghosthunter]

Pigeons will work too,  Clip a wing

[callturner]

#1. Stop letting the dog NOT retrieve birds, Short sessions of what it will do.
#2. Even Grahams "Smart works", get it follow it , Problems solved. Start from the beginning and you will progress fast. 

[RobinHoodlum]

Had the same issue last year with my pup. She was bringing birds shot on land most of the way back, but not always to hand and seemed to have a real issue with ducks. 

Sometimes wasn't bring water retrieved bumpers to hand either  - wanted to shake first. My approach was to live with it during the hunting season and keep everything very positive.

I force fetch trained her over about an 8 week time frame in late winter and continued to drill through the summer. She now brings everything to hand until given the release command.

If you elect to go this route, I have a training bench taking up precious real estate in my garage that I would donate to your cause.

[KP-Skagit]

I feel I owe the group a follow up. I thank everyone for the advice and recommendations. I am happy to announce Ruby appears to be past her quirk.

Here is how I did it.

95% of the retrieves in the areas I hunt are on the water. I took her out with my dad and we limited with all the retrieves in the water. I came home and made use of her excitement. Strapped some duck wings to a dummy and did 5 or so retrieves with her. No problem been doing that for months. Then I took one of the ducks we had gotten and tossed it. She did not want to pick it up. I came over scolded her, hulked over here and hit her ears with my hat briefly. She is a smart dog, it doesn't take much. Then I grabbed the duck and started teasing her with it. Letting her chase it, even letting her tug of war with it (normally I would never do that). Then I made her sit tossed it out and she retrieved it without hesitation straight to my hand. 5 more of that and I was feeling good.

Fast forward to this weekend and a couple dozen more water retrieves still with no opportunity for land retrieves. The arae we were hunting had a very eclectic mix of birds. I had the opportunity to shot at a flock that had widgeon and canvasbacks. I dropped both a canvasback (my first and a bucket list bird!) and a drake widgeon. Both came down crippled and were swimming. Both made the bank and got out of the water despite numerous attempts to shoot them on the water. Ruby hunted them for probably 15 minutes through cattails and ultimately up into the blackberries. She retrieved the widgeon to me on land. I was in the cattails myself and had completely lost her only to turn around to find her, sitting, with the bird in her mouth behind me. The canvasback she ran up the bank and then back down to the water and then got it while it was diving on her.

Here is a picture of the canvasbacks, there were 3 of us hunting for the record.

[callturner]

Nice birds, beautiful dog, Still "Smartworks" you won't be sorry.