Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Bird Dogs => Topic started by: DoubleJ on May 30, 2011, 07:39:42 PM
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My dog is 5 months. He sits well and fetches well. He is about 70% on Bring and about 40% on Drop. I'm assuming continuing work is how to get these to 100%. The problem I have is his grip. How do I soften it up? He has a death grip on his toys and chews them as he brings them.
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have you or kids been playing "tug of war" or "keep away"?
don't.
at 5 months though its all fun and games, socilize the dog, play with it. Don't over train it.
later, like a year later or more, if the dog needs it or keeps a hard mouth you may be looking at force fetch.
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remember to keep it slow and fun, but to soften its mouth come up with a live quail kill it and freeze it immediatly, use it for training only no games.My dogs will bring birds back alive and mostly unharmed and i attribute that kind of training to their softmouth
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I trained my lab from this book. He died at age 14 back in '05. Best bird dog ever. I sure miss him.
http://www.amazon.com/Speed-Train-Your-Own-Retriever/dp/0811722015 (http://www.amazon.com/Speed-Train-Your-Own-Retriever/dp/0811722015)
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my vote is no toys- no birds until you get the mouthing issue resolved. Talking to someone about force fetching would probably be a good idea. Almost all mouthing issues can be cured by someone who has experience force fetching.
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my pup had the same problem. i used a frozen bird.. fixed the problem.
