[harvey1b]

I've been doing water retrieve training with my dog lately. She's just over a year so this summer is her first to really get in the water. When she gets out of the water she likes to shake off before bringing the bumper to me. She is force fetched so she shakes off with the bumper in her mouth. Is this poor form or should the shaking be disouraged? If so how do you stop it?

thanks,
Matt

 

[98ramtough]

Matt,

Are you training the dog for hunting or for field trials? For a hunting dog, I like them to shake right out of the water, it gets less water on you. If they don't shake until they hand you the duck you get wet....

 

[harvey1b]

yeh, just training for hunting. I was thinking that since you don't want the dog to shake the hell out of the bird when it picks it up, it might be considered poor form to shake off after leaving the water. I've been training with a Dokkens and she still shakes pretty good when getting out of the water even though it whacks her in the snout.

thanks :salude:

 

[Greg Wile]

Its a natural thing for a dog to shake off right after leaving the water, so why try and change it. Thas like makin a south paw use their right hand IMHO. :smile:

 

[gsphunter]

Harvey if you want to change it, here's what I'm trying to do. My dog doesn't shake when she exits the water, but instead shakes after she releases the fetch object. Like 98ram said, this gets me pretty wet after a few retrieves. So every time she shakes on her on I say the word shake a few times, hoping that she'll associate the word with the action. In your case though, I wouldn't worry about it unless the dog starts dropping when she shakes, because this would be disobedience, and could lead to the breaking down of your force fetch training.

 

[shrpshtr]

Its a natural thing for a dog to shake off right after leaving the water, so why try and change it. Thas like makin a south paw use their right hand IMHO. :smile:

:withstupid: