Teaching “soft mouth” retrieving

camoman

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 7, 2015
Posts
698
Likes
4
Points
143
Have a new yellow lab pup that is pretty darn good retriever. With a dummy he retrieves to hand without any issues. As soon as there is a bird or feathers involved he loses his mind, has the hardest mouth and absolutely annihilates a bird/wing/feathers. Anybody have any good training techniques to teach him to lighten up his grip?
 


bigv

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 18, 2015
Posts
1,024
Likes
81
Points
228
Location
Northeastern SD
teaching "Hold" starting with gloved hand, into dowels then progressing into FF. Lots of youtube info on this. Has done wonders with all my retrievers.
 

camoman

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
May 7, 2015
Posts
698
Likes
4
Points
143
teaching "Hold" starting with gloved hand, into dowels then progressing into FF. Lots of youtube info on this. Has done wonders with all my retrievers.

FF? Any trainers in particular you are fond of?
 

bigv

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 18, 2015
Posts
1,024
Likes
81
Points
228
Location
Northeastern SD
I train all my own dogs. Learned from a pro years ago in Clark SD named Luttrell kennels. He still takes dogs for training. I actually do some as well in summer. Not sure in ND? There are many good dvds and books on it too.
An older one I learned a ton from is the Fowl dawgs dvd series. Think 3 of them? That will intro you to holding and FF.
20210130_142601.jpgthis is last week. My 7th month old on a live pheasant hunt. Did awesome!

- - - Updated - - -
 
Last edited:

Kurtr

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Posts
18,238
Likes
1,966
Points
648
Location
Mobridge,Sd
Yep ff once adult teeth are in. I had help from a guy who worked at luttrell with my puppy . Join a club I know Bismarck has one and you will learn a lot. Bob Owens with lone duck kennels has some good you tube on ff. I would say find a system and follow it. Freddy king has a group you join for 60 dollars that is worth every penny. Mike lardy has great dvds also. Can’t wait for spring going to do my first hrc test.

B7C604B1-A58D-4305-A15B-51E313DE6F77.jpg

he was almost 9 months here
 


camoman

Founding Member
Founding Member
Thread starter
Joined
May 7, 2015
Posts
698
Likes
4
Points
143
Based on the info I’m training by force fetch won’t be introduced for a while. In addition, my dog is a pointing lab who has already shown that he has the makings to be a true pointer (which I’m hoping to continue to work on) so not sure if the flushing/retrieving trainers would go about things any different.
 

zoops

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 17, 2015
Posts
1,796
Likes
155
Points
268
Based on the info I’m training by force fetch won’t be introduced for a while. In addition, my dog is a pointing lab who has already shown that he has the makings to be a true pointer (which I’m hoping to continue to work on) so not sure if the flushing/retrieving trainers would go about things any different.

How old is the pup? If it's under 6 months I probably wouldn't worry too much, just take birds away for a couple months.
 

Kurtr

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Posts
18,238
Likes
1,966
Points
648
Location
Mobridge,Sd
Based on the info I’m training by force fetch won’t be introduced for a while. In addition, my dog is a pointing lab who has already shown that he has the makings to be a true pointer (which I’m hoping to continue to work on) so not sure if the flushing/retrieving trainers would go about things any different.

if pointing lab is your goal check out Julianne Knutson. They do ff just the same and she has hrch and mh dogs only difference is they point up land hunting. She has a podcast called training the pointing Labrador that is pretty good. Ff will clean all that up at this point I would be working obedience and having fun only doing a few marks a day to build drive in the puppy.

- - - Updated - - -

I started a dog training group here if you want join that and share your progress
 


riverview

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2015
Posts
2,982
Likes
786
Points
398
in the early 90s i had a lean mac female black lab that was a bird hunting machine. Took training real fast force fetched easy. Had a hard mouth on training birds but not terrible, all ways released but could tell she was really holding tight. First duck i shot for her had the guts squirted out. Tried to solve the problem for years in ways i wont even say. In the end she got better but tenderized most of the birds that were shot over her. She is still one of the better bird dogs i have had the pleasure of owning.
 

Fishing701

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 18, 2015
Posts
37
Likes
3
Points
88
Location
Minot
What about using frozen birds? I heard that is supposed to help with hard mouth. I put a couple my dog chewed on to much to eat this year in the freezer and have been using them in retrieving exercises. Not sure if it’s helping yet. Soft squeaky toys are no good either.
 

dgully

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 27, 2015
Posts
274
Likes
5
Points
120
Location
Minot
I remember my ol’man wrapping barb wire on a dummy then wrapping burlap over it just so if she bit down hard it would poke through. It worked on our hyper springer spaniel
 

Kurtr

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Posts
18,238
Likes
1,966
Points
648
Location
Mobridge,Sd
I would quit using birds and get through ff before doing anything else. Have him on a check cord if using birds and don’t allow him to chew on them.
 

bigv

Founding Member
Founding Member
Joined
May 18, 2015
Posts
1,024
Likes
81
Points
228
Location
Northeastern SD
Using your gloved hand and wooden dowels in the the 'hold" training will do a good job creating a soft mouth.
 


Recent Posts

Friends of NDA

Top Posters of the Month

  • This month: 159
  • This month: 133
  • This month: 115
  • This month: 108
  • This month: 103
  • This month: 86
  • This month: 82
  • This month: 76
  • This month: 74
  • This month: 74
Top Bottom