I picked up an 1.5yo white lab from one of the Forum members last Thursday and have begin working with him. I think he's a little fat and out of shape. When I started him last Saturday he would fetch a ball about 5 times and then go lay down under the patio, panting. I threw a couple of shed horns for him Sunday night and he retrieved them a couple of times then wanted to lay down and chew on them, again panting like he was out of shape. So I put the horns up and have been trying to increase his repetitions for tennis ball retievals and have been taking him on 1 mile walks. He does really well on a leash, heels, stops, sits (most of the time), is starting to stay and a work in progress for laying down. I don't think he's dumb by any means. I think he is just fat and out of shape and can't retrieve for a very long time yet. Before I got him, I think he spent most of his time in a kennel and might have gotten a little work and exercise in the evenings. I am trying to throw just enough tennis balls each time to push his endurance, but not let him stop on his own. This morning he retrieved 14 times before I stopped him. Last night was 10, yesterday morning was 12. I'm hoping after our walk this evening I can get him to another 12 retrieves and bump him up to 16 in the morning. I am used to my last lab who would literally fetch until he could no longer walk, then he would crawl to go get it.

Any advice on a dog like this? Am I headed in the right direction by stretching out his endurance before we start training with antlers? Anyone on here ever trained an antler dog before?

Thanks,
Jason

Sounds good to me! Just be careful if it really heats up, as the stress of pushing his limits may be too much for his ticker. As far as the shed hunting, I read an article this winter that made the training sound like childs play. But it was basically the same principle as any scent retrieve: get them to know the scent and the item, get them to love both the scent and the item, and get them to find the scent, then the item, and return to you! Good luck, and keep us posted, as i'd love to hear if he turns out to be a great shed hunter!

Great idea. I think I'm going to teach my lab to bring me sheds.

I'm by no means an expert but perhaps a change of scenery may help, he may be getting bored, along with tired.

Well so far, I've got him up to about 25 retrieves in the morning and 25 retrieves in the afternoon with a frisbee. I think I will start back into the antlers again and see if I can get him excited about bringing those to me. Then we will see if we can get him to see it out when I hide it from him in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I can respond back with some info on how he's coming along. Anybody have any input let me know.

50 retrieves a day is a ton.



I would scale that back unless they are all different. You risk making it too much like work for the dog instead of fun.

Don't forget the obedience, this aspect of retriever training is too often overlooked and there is almost nothing worse than a retriever getting yelled at during a hunt for breaking, ignoring the handler, etc...

I agree with TexasEd. You never want the dog to get tired or bored of what you are doing. Don't do 25 of the same retrieves. Mix it up or don't do as many at once. You want to leave the dog wanting more.

As it gets warmer, take the dog to the local pond and get in water retrieves. This will keep him from overheating.

Good looking dog pic there SB, oh and 338ultra...don't throw sheds for water retrieves, dogs really don't like to dive all that deep...I'm just sayin'