I have a question for the more experienced trainers. A little background. I have a 7mo old Boykin Spaniel that I am working on force fetch with. We have hold down great. I can put anything in his mouth and tell him to hold, and he will do whatever I tell him and continue holding until I take it from him.

I have started on force fetching and he has figured it out quick. When I am holding the bumper out in front and command fetch he lunges and grabs it immediately. I am trying to transition him to picking the bumper up off the ground and he picks it up fine, but he always grabs the end of the bumper and it is dangling in his mouth like a giant cigar. If I have my hand on it at all he grabs it in the middle. Is this something that I need to try to correct? Or is it a non issue? I just want to make sure that I don't let him develop bad habits. If this is an issue what advice or drills should I use to correct it?

Thanks in advance for all the great advice.

I'm not a pro but I believe they say wrap the ends in some thing uncomfortable so the only good spot to pick it up is in the middle

This is very common and the reason is that he is keying in on your hand as you are moving further and further down the rope or end of the bumper. This is usually easily corrected by readjusting the bumper in the dogs mouth once he has gotten back to the sit position and commanding "Hold". As you are able to move away from holding the bumper or touching it in some way he will go back to grabbing and holding it from the middle.

Get some pvc pipe reducer fittings to put on the ends of the bumper. They keep the bumper slightly elevated off the ground and it encourages proper mouth placement on the bumper.

Angie

Sounds great guys. I will try the advice you have given me. Thanks for the help!!

I like that idea Angie. Does it work with hexabumpers?

If your dog fetches bird and bumpers on command I wouldn't nit pick. Sounds like a force fetched dog. He will get the hang of it.

Agreed. Who cares where he holds the damn bumper as long as he's bringing it to you like he should. Maybe he's got a real soft mouth? Be happy... Sounds like a good dog

You can also, wrap the ends of the bumper with a towel, then duct tape over them. Make something that looks like a dumbell. Just get it off the ground a little bit. Same concept as above.

they make wooden bumpers like this for agility trials.

To me it DOES make a difference. Mouth awareness is extremely important in a trained retriever. If the dog has a sloppy mouth it will have a sloppy delivery, a sloppy return, yadayadayada.

A high standard set for the dog in it's training makes for a better hunting companion.

Angie

I agree with Angie. This is not a standard that you should let slip. If you do then you will end up having to put undue pressure on the dog in walking fetch, force to the pile, and most likely marking for continuously dropping the bumper. There is no way that a dog can run over terrain without dropping the bumper with a cigar hold. And just to clarify, this is not just a soft mouth. It is easily fixed so why not do it?

Thanks for all the advice guys. Since I am going to all the work to train this dog I figure I will do everything to ensure that he is successful. I will work on the hold of the bumper with the advice given, and make sure it is corrected before moving on. I have added the reducers to the end of the bumper and we have nearly cured the problem already (it really has been simple). Again thanks for the advice.

I used to just knock the bumper out of my dogs mouth when she brought it back dangling, then hit the collar till she got it back in her mouth. She learned to get a good grip on it where I couldn't knock it out.

x2

Listen to the pro. Had I done this I would not have had to deal with the problem after the fact. Funny my dog would pick up the bumper wrong out of bad habit, on the return she would see me and it would hit her she was holding the bumper incorrectly thinking of the last correction she got (I could see it on her face), she would return to heal and I would give her a chance to correct herself and she would. She would go down real slow and touch the bottom of the bumper to the ground so she could get a good grip in the middle of the bumper, she got a girl for that, I thought that was awesome. But you should be able to go down, tap on bumper, pull on bumper, and dog holds on unless asked to “give”, can’t do that if bumper is dangling..