So I have a 2 year old lab that I self trained with a little help she has been through force fetching and is more than started she takes hand signals very well and works great in any situation when its practice time, and I work with her a lot. But I'm having an issue with her not showing the same drive when we are hunting. If she sees them go down and they are still kicking she's all over it, but when its sort of a slow hunt and its maybe been 20-30 minuets since the last retrieve and I go to send her she just eases out and stops several times for me to push her back and when I work with her on blinds and I send her back there are no issues. She almost seems confused or has lost interest at this point and just takes her sweet time slowly getting out there. Has anyone ever experienced this with a lab and do you have any advice?
Thanks

Marsh, I'm not a pro but I train frequently with pros and hunt test/ field trial guys so I'm at least reasonably versed in this stuff. I'm going to PM you my number. Call or text me and we can work through it hopefully and post up a good response on here.

Reason I say that is there are a lot of possible factors here and we may have to dig in a little to find the cause.

It would help to know what program you have followed, what training it has done, temperament, etc. There are a lot of things that could have caused this. Dogs are odd. It could be simply the dog isn't used to its stand or boat so it doesn't know exactly what to do and the expectations aren't clear so it isn't thrilled to go on a mark, it could be that you didn't finish or complete force work well and the dog is bugging now on marks, maybe you did something small you didn't notice (like an improper e-collar nick on the dogs first hunt) and the dog associates real marks with it. Could be a lot of things or it could be nothing and the dog will just work it out over time.

Text me and let's talk.


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I have sort of the same with my 1 1/2 year old black pup. When we are hunting over water from the boat, she is all over the marks or blinds and she comes right back to the boat. When we are field hunting she gets to the downed bird quick, but mouths the birds and picks it up and drops it etc.. Sometimes she picks the feathers out a bit until I correct her?

Never does this while hunting water?! I saw her go after a cripped canada my buddy wing tipped and chased it for over 10 minutes before she finally got it. I've also seen her run up to a stone ass dead canada, laying 25 yards from the layout in a field and it took her close to 3 minutes to get it back because she was trying to molest it all the way back to the layout. Goofy bitch.

Retrace your steps, most of the time it is obedience stuff. They know it's serious in the water but on land it could be like he said more play time. Just stay consistent

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Just started to use the collar this summer and she is a hard headed dog but, she is soft to the collar which is good I guess. I conditioned her and now only have to use the vibrate and she is a different dog with it on. We will see if she starts this playing with the birds in the field situations this year. I will have the advantage this year when last year at 8 months I had not introduced her to the collar yet. Time will tell and I will get this under control.