Last year was his first year of real hunting. He did very good for being a new pup. He retrieved he followed scent trails etc. very good the first year. He actually loved to retrieve birds, or dummies, or tennis balls last year. But now this year, he has a soft mouth. I dont know how that came about, and how do i fix it? Or is it possible to fix? Like I said, last year he loved to retrieve and do all that, and now this year he'll barely pick the ball up when you throw it, he'll barely pick up the dummy when you throw it. Any suggestions will be welcomed!

Thanks!
John B.

Force Fetch training.

how would i go about doing that?

Definently FF...(force fetching)...If i were you i would bring your dog to a reputable trainer and have them force fetch your dog or teach you how to do it. It will help you very much.

I've got a yellow lab and she went through the same thing at around 16-18 months. I didn't FF her, and she just got through that phase and is back at it. I don't know how typical this is with labs.

ya, i dont think im gonna force fetch him. But today, we ran the pheasant scent and the pheasant dummy thing all over. He picked it up every time. So, i dont think im going to worry about it. Hopefully he'll snap out of it. BTW how old is your lab grunt?

She was 2 in June. She's got that love for retreiving again!

I've got a new problem. I've attached pheasant wings to the pheasant dummy and have had her fetching this is the back yard. Last week she decides to fetch it...then stop half way back and start plucking feathers out. I didn't want to zap her for fear of her associating feathers with a negative consequence, so I just stopped training for the day and sent her to the kennel. Anyone have this problem? How do you work through it?

When we put pheasant wings on the dummy, our dog absolutely loved it. He did tend to keep the pheasant in his mouth longer than what he would normally do. But, I do remember sometimes when he would just start trying to pluck the feathers out, my dad just yelled no to him. Like you said, you didn't want to shock her for fear of associating feathers with a negative consequence, so my dad just yelled no really loud at him, and told him to bring it back. He brought it back, then wanted to keep playing fetch.

Force Fetch training.

Get SmartFetch by Evan Graham