Here is a little training video of some retriever training with Piper. Most people might think that playing fetch with your dog is not really training. It should be fun, the point of all of this is for the puppy to learn that going out and bringing back an item is fun and exciting, like play time. Once she associates playing fetch as fun time you can start to put some controls on retrieving. German Shorthair Pointers do have a natural instinct to retrieve, but not all GSP owners bring it out. In my opinion the dog training should not stop after the shot. Meaning, after you shoot a bird the dog's work is not over. Finding the birds is the main reason for hunting with a dog, but finding the bird after its shot is just as important, if not more important through an ethical/conservationist standpoint. It does not look very good if hunters go around shooting animals, wounding or killing them and not recovering them. Retriever training is also the start of training to track.
In this video you will see that all I use is a long lead and something to throw. I have been using a toy pheasant that Piper likes. I also bought a quail training dummy and some orange bumpers. For some reason she could not care less about the orange bumpers. She will run out, smell it and wander off. If I hold the bumper in front of her she will look at me like, "what are you doing? I don't want this."
I started off training by using a small room, like the hallway in my house. I closed all the doors so that when I threw the toy out she would run out and grab it and have no choice but to bring it back. I would reward her and praise her. She got this concept pretty easy so I moved outside. I put her on a lead so that when she runs out and grabs the toy I can coax her back into me, but to be honest she rarely needs reminding to do that. I am going to continue with this kind go training for a few more weeks until I put more controls on her. Right now its just fun time. Once she gets more basic commands like sit and stay I can start to advance. Then I can start using real birds, like frozen ducks... so stay tuned, more to come.
Piper retrieving<------------youtube video
