Hi everyone,
I'm 17 and just got a golden retriever pup, my first puppy. she's about 13 weeks old now. I've been working on training her using the book and video of Richard A Wolters Game Dog, as well as his book Water dog. She's coming along nicely, and can now sit, stay, come and fetch, however, I came to realize that I made a few mistakes when teaching her how to fetch, and wondered how I can correct them. My problem is this: when I taught her to fetch, it was pretty much in one area, a big room in our house, so she will only bring it back in that one spot. If I throw it elsewhere, outside for example, she will either just sit and chew on the bumper like it's a toy, or walk past me and sit and chew on it. When I sit in that one spot, most of the time she will pick it up, and run to me, only she will run right past me if I dont catch her (she's only about 1 1/2 ft away to my side) and not bring it to my hand. I figured that these weren't big problems at the time, and was glad to see her at least interested in retrieving, but now want her to deliver it to my hand, from anywhere. Should I be grabbing the bumper from her mouth when she runs by? I do this and praise her after it, but she hasn't caught on yet, especially if it's not in that one specific room. Also, any help on getting her to drop it is appreciative. She's good sometimes, but tends to be protective of the bumper, and will growl and try to play tug of war until I pry her jaws apart often. I figure these are problems everyone has, so I'd like some input as to how to correct them. Thanks alot, I really appreciate it.
-Larr