I am having a problem. My seven month old male chessy "Tank" retrieves excellently in the house but outside he seems more interested in everything else around the yard. When I throw the dummy he sits long enough to mark it then runs hard to it but either noses it and just goes his own way from there or picks it up carries it a few feet toward me and drops it before sniffing around in whatever direction he wants to go. What can I do to correct this?

lack of interest or just growing up?

could be your pup just has a lot of other stuff on his mind....I don't think it's uncommon for dogs to go through a phase like this....he has decided he wants to do things his way.....

for starters you can limit the number of retrieves he gets in the house - in fact perhaps discontinue for a few days...do obedience work with him and that is all...sometimes if you put a dog up (kennel him) for a couple of days he will realize that it's a lot more fun working than it is to be 'ignored'....

second of all - now is about the time you would want to consider force fetching your pup...this will help him realize that he has a job to do as well as strengthen your working relationship.......

I doubt very much that he is teething now, but you may want to make sure there is nothing in that area that might make it uncomfortable for him to carry things.....

If you have another dog, you can use the 'jealousy' factor....or if you know someone else with a dog that likes to retrieve you can short tie your pup while he watches the other dog get to 'play'......make him want to retrieve too (you can also do this by throwing marks and retrieving them yourself)....don't let him have any retrieves for a couple of days - just let him watch and get worked up...then see if his attitude has changed and throw him ONE mark....

Juli

Kevin........

Great advice from Juli! Has you pup had any birds of any kind to retrieve? If not I would suggest introducing him to some and see if that picks up his interest. We do not like to go into FF a dog who has not had lots of exposure to them!

Norene S.
Nordom Chesapeakes

No he hasn't seen any birds yet. We just had a baby and tank being so young and inexperienced duck season was pretty much out. However I will take him Rabbit/pheasant hunting soon. I've never ff a dog before, I have a video on it but haven't tried it before. Is there anything I should know other than what is shown on Game Dog? It's with Charles T Jurney. I was kind of leary of ff since I've never done it with any dog I've had in the past and the way people on the forums have said to be careful with it.

Just got out a set of mallard wings that I had been waiting to introduce til he became more reliable. He was a little apprehensive for about oh....5 seconds! Then after he liked it went after them hard he wanted to take off with it but I kept pulling him in with the check cord and I had to force him to drop it all but maybe 2 of the retrieves but he definitely liked the wings. It's hard for me to realize that he is still just a baby since he is so big, the picture of him that I posted is when he was 5 months old. What should he know at 7 months?

Kevin........that's great that Tank liked the wings! It sounds like he would like the real thing also.!

I think that if you haven't done formal obedience with him, now would be a good time to start. By now he should be able to do the basic commands of sit, stay, come, heel, down and etc. at least on leash!

If you have never FF a dog before I would suggest you either have it done by a professional or at least find an experienced person that would be willing to help you. It is not an easy task even for someone who is experienced in doing it. It is an important building block for future training and takes time and patience.

Good Luck with Tank.....

Norene S.

Tank's getting pretty good at all those commands even off leash with the exception of heel which he does on leash of course. Yeah I didn't think it would probably be a good idea to ff him. I'll never take him to a trial and as long as he fetches my dead birds and flushes upland game that is really all I expect of him other than being a great companion (which he is!) thanks for the info everyone, this site is pretty cool it's nice to talk to and read about other chesapeake owners as all you see around here is labs

Kevin;

I'm about to FF my 6 month old; I didn't FF my other dog. One thing that I have read other people say is, FF also takes the dog's OB to a new level. The theory being that FF is not just about fetching and holding a bird, but about handling pressure and responding to your commands implicitly.

Just something else to consider.