I reached an "impasse" during my fetch training with my two pups (11-13 mos. old). I am a big fan of Jim and Phyllis Dobbs' technique and have used it many times. I had the dogs holding anything I put in their mouths and walking around with it and surrendering it on command. But, now was the time to head them to moving the mouth out and taking what I was putting out there for them. I'm not a fan of a lot of yelling and unnecessary pain on a dog (re-read "unnecessary"), and these are my future dogs, so I was a little apprehensive about where to go next. The would just clam up when I put the buck on their lips.
I went to the TriTronics website and found their Forum. I ended up getting some very good advice off the forum and I encourage anyone with training issues to give it a shot. I also read through several posts about upland hunting around the country and was especially intrigued about bird hunting in Alaska, of all places! Did you know their season is 9 months long? Give it a look!
http://forums.tritronics.com/
Look out pups, here we go again! They will be ready for next year with some fine retrieves, I'm sure!
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| Cap at 8 months in NM |
