I have a question on force fetching my lab. Currently she is 5 months will be 6 months on the 27. My question is when to start force fetch. She is the first retriever I have trained and I am using a couple different sources to draw from. One of which is Bill Hillman How to train a puppy retriever another is Evan Graham Smartwork and Stonnie Dennis on YouTube. Currently Bailey knows: Sit conditioned to E collar for about 10 minutes under heavy distraction (screaming, yelling, running around at a distance. I get some good looks when I do that :D). The place command from a distance of about 20 yards to a tree stand, ledge, rock, or other structure. Here conditioned to E collar reliably. She knows heel with and without a bumper in her mouth but will not hold it in her mouth. Sometimes it will hit my leg or she will bring it back and drop it as I am going to get it out of her mouth. Those along with other commands such as down, kennel, leave it, and find it which is what I use for searching for birds in cover. She has had dead birds and rabbits.

The bulk of my questions arises from differences in the two series I am following and want your input. Evan says, "Force fetching is not an option to use when a mouth problem has come up. It will ensure the proper delivery of birds to hand." in Bill's video it seems as it is lightly spoken about without much detail. To make matters worse she is loosing her puppy teeth which is causing her gums to bleed when she retrieves. She does not vocalize any pain or show a diminished drive to retrieve. This was her at 3 months. As always thank you for any and all input.

Don't start till all her adult teeth are in. Hillmann has a "Fetch Command" DVD but it is not force Fetch. It is a conditioned response method.

I used Lardy's TRT2 as a resource when force fetching my first dog.

The first thing you are going to want to do once her adult teeth come in is teach "hold" and she should be holding while doing all obedience drills on the ground before moving on to ear pinch.

If at all possible get someone experienced preferably a pro to help you through it. If not make sure you follow each step in detail.

Wait until the permanent teeth are all in

Yep.

Concur on adult teeth.