How to Avoid Retrieving Pitfalls While Cultivating Drive and Success
By Jordan Horak
Who doesn't like a dog that loves to retrieve? Whether we are tossing bumpers in the backyard, launching dummies in the field, or sending our dogs for a downed bird, owning a dog that relentlessly retrieves is something I suspect all bird hunters desire. And, while owning an enthusiastic retriever is a lot of fun, I think it's also a practical necessity. A dog with a high retrieve drive allows us to teach the dog complex skills such as remote handling and steadiness; and that drive will also enable a dog to work out any retrieve of downed game that occurs in the field.
As important as retrieving is for a bird dog, I've noticed something interesting over the years - there seems to be a direct correlation between an owner wanting their dog to love retrieving, and their dog not enjoying retrieving. Often, the more the owner wants the retrieve, the less retrieve drive the dog has. This is a problem, and one that I believe in many cases is avoidable, but it does take some intentionality and discipline on the part of the owner.
WATCH: PURINA Sporting Dog Shorts: Training Puppies for High Retrieve Drive
Too much enthusiasm (on our part)
Thirty years ago, I brought my first hunting dog home - a yellow Lab that came from strong field trial lines. I had big plans for him, and I got started on them immediately. Within hours of getting him home, I started throwing retrieves for that pup.
At first, he seemed to enjoy retrieving, so I gave him more retrieves. It wasn't long before he started to show disinterest. Worried that he was no longer interested in retrieving, I threw him a couple more retrieves to see if I could regain his interest. Within a few days, that pup no longer had any desire to retrieve, and unfortunately that attitude stayed with him for life. I believe I made the same mistake that so many other new puppy owners make every day - I did too much too soon.
Many of us are prone to fall into this trap. We are, of course, well-intentioned and want the best for our pups. We're not trying to burn them out, or to create negative associations with retrieving; we're simply trying to give our puppies every possible opportunity to be great.
Unfortunately, training progression with puppies rarely rewards those that push the hardest and fastest. Instead, taking a slower, more calculated approach to develop retrieve drive is the most likely way to produce an adult dog that is enthusiastic about retrieving.
Cultivate Desire
I have a four-year-old son. He's full of energy and enthusiasm and wants to be just like his older brothers who are passionate soccer players. These days, my four-year-old goes outside and kicks a soccer ball around with his older brothers a few times a week. He does it because he wants to, it's for relatively short periods of time, and it's generally when the weather is nice. We don't put any expectations on him while he's out there. There are no requirements, and he's having fun the entire time. There's a great chance that if he continues at this pace, in a couple of years he'll want to play low-key organized soccer; and a few years after that, he'll probably start playing for a team that has harder practices and more expectations. But for today, he's just a four-year-old having fun kicking a ball around. Studies show that this is likely the best process for setting him up to enjoy playing soccer when he gets older, and for reaching his full potential as a soccer player.
The process for building a retrieve drive in a puppy isn't all that different - it's a gradual process with incremental steps. Rush the process, start thinking that your pup is the exception to the rule, and you'll run the very real risk of having an adult dog that doesn't crave the next retrieve.
Specific concepts to get you thinking
Here are some of the concepts that I adhere to with puppies in regard to building a retrieve drive. You may find these concepts helpful, though this is by no means an exhaustive list, and enough to get you started thinking differently about retrieves the next time you bring a new puppy home.
Start with where they're at - If you've done your part in selecting a puppy carefully, there's a good chance it's going to have some natural retrieving desire built in right from the get-go. That's your starting point. Your job is to take that small little piece of desire and build it into something that's unquenchable, but you have to proceed slowly. Push too hard and you'll extinguish it; neglect it and it may fizzle out.
Rules are no fun when you're young - I often see new dog owners requiring their puppy to make a perfect delivery, or to be steady before being sent for a retrieve. This rarely ends well. Rules equal pressure to a puppy, and pressure often kills enthusiasm. Resist the urge to demand perfection with your pup's retrieves; it's much better to accept a sloppy delivery and keep it fun. As the pup grows up, you can start to slowly sharpen the retrieve; but at the start, the goal should be to cultivate enthusiasm, not to make the retrieve look perfect.
Use something they want - Since we're trying to keep retrieving fun, it's important to use a retrieving object that our pup wants to carry in its mouth. Puppy teeth can be a lot more sensitive than adult teeth, so often hard objects are not nearly as desirable to a puppy as a softer object. When I find something my puppy likes carrying, I typically will set it aside and use it exclusively for our retrieving sessions. Sometimes it's a knotted-up sock, or a small paint roller, or a small tennis ball. Whatever it is, I want to make sure that my puppy likes it, as this ensures that enthusiasm stays high.
Short and sweet - I cannot stress this one enough - my retrieving sessions with puppies usually last for TWO short retrieves. Sometimes three, but almost never more than that. The goal is to make the puppy desire the retrieve, and the best way to do that is to quit while they're still wanting more. Puppies generally have very short attention spans, so when we start trying to stretch out the session, we run the risk of losing their interest. Unfortunately, often that lost interest will show up in the following session. You'll be doing yourself and your puppy a favor if you limit yourself to two retrieves per session for at least the first few weeks after you bring your puppy home.
Complexity comes later - It's tempting to “test” a new puppy by giving it a retrieve that involves some complexity - whether that be a distance, or one with an obstacle in the middle. But when we do this, we run the risk of failure, and failure is detrimental to the goal of building desire. Instead, start out giving short retrieves on flat surfaces, where success is guaranteed. I usually start out in a hallway or small fenced-in area, and then slowly build from there.
Putting it all together
Getting a puppy is a big deal. For most of us it's an event that will only happen a handful of times in our lifetime and typically it's a process filled with lots of research and expense. Making sure that we give our new puppy the best possible chance at success is important. However strong the temptation may be, it's crucial that we resist the urge to push our puppy to the extent where we extract all the fun from retrieving and turn the puppy into an apathetic observer of thrown objects or downed birds.
This doesn't mean that we should forever be throwing short retrieves in a bare hallway using a rolled-up sock. That's just the starting point - just like with my four-year-old kicking a ball with no objective in mind. Eventually his soccer training will get harder, but not until he's mentally and physically ready for it.
So when should you start increasing the duration and difficulty of your pup's retrieving sessions? There's no easy answer to this. Every breed is different, and within each breed, every puppy is different. It's better to go too slowly and leave the pup wanting more than it is to go too quickly. I think typically pups are five to six months old before I start increasing their sessions; but even then, if I see even subtle signs of disinterest, I'll immediately end a session and keep subsequent sessions shorter. My best advice here is to have a critical eye and remember that your goal is to preserve and increase retrieve drive.
Someday, you're going to have an adult dog that loves retrieving in your off-season training sessions and that makes recovery of downed birds look easy. Until then, proceed slowly, keep it fun for the pup, and make sure you enjoy the process as well. Good luck!
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Jordan Horak is the owner of Cato Outdoors and Juggernaut Gundogs. He has had a life-long obsession with hunting dogs that goes back 30 years, and in that time he has trained countless gundogs as well as trial dogs for spaniel field trials. His most notable achievement was winning the Cocker National Open Championship and the Amateur Championship in the same year (2018) with two different dogs. While not currently running in field trials, Jordan spends the fall chasing pheasants in the Dakotas and grouse in in northern Wisconsin. In the off-season he enjoys developing young dogs.