I have a 8 1/2 month old male, has the obedience down pat and the retrieving bit down, but only with his toys. He refuses to pick up a training dummy with or without feathers attached. With the toys he'll go on command "take", "hold" and the "give" excellant, but when I throw a training dummy, he'll go to it, sniff it and try to head to the house. Any ideas?

He needs to be force fetched. Once a dog is force fetched properly, you won't have any problems with him snatching up dummies as fast as he can.

BVM

He responds to the force fetching, but will still not retrieve the training dummies. Is this the stubbornness of a CBR that I've heard about?

Have you forced him using the training dummy? I don't think it's stubbornness, it is probably a misunderstanding. He has not associated the training dummy with the training. The Ten Minute Retriever by John and Amy Dahl has an excellent breakdown, including pictures, that shows force fetching using dummies. Take a look at it. You may need it with a young dog on a live duck or phesant.

If forced properly, when you say Fetch, he should be diving at whatever it is you want him to pick up dummy, duck, pigeon, ball, whatever.


BVM