HEATHER JULIE CLAYTON FOR THE GUNDOG CLUB – JUNE 2023
Many, although not all, dogs when they are learning to retrieve tend to run out faster than then come back.
This often is not be a problem at all – most people are happy for a dog to gallop out, and come back at a purposeful canter.
It can be a problem, however, if the return slows too much or starts to look unenthusiastic or the dog starts to deviate and doesn’t come straight back at all.
It can be helpful to break down the different behaviours in a retrieve and work on them individually – this exercise is about a focus on a good, enthusiastic return.
Try separating out the return
For this exercise, don’t use a dummy – use a food bowl.
You may first have to teach your dog to run out to a food bowl if you haven’t used one on your training field before. This is a simple matter: sit your dog up, put down a food bowl and release the dog to get the food.
Gradually move the food bowl further away, marked with a stick if helpful, until your dog will run a decent way out to a bowl on a release cue.
Now we can start work on encouraging the dog to want to turn away from the bowl as fast as he can to get back to you.
Motivation to return
What floats your dog’s boat? You want something high energy – this whole exercise is about encouraging a high energy enthusiastic return, so you want to encourage this behaviour in the way you deliver reinforcement. You could:
- blow your recall and run!
- throw a ball or toy behind you with a cue to chase it
- pick up a flirt pole and give a cue for a game of chase
- start a game where the dog gets to chase food
So send the dog out to the food bowl, and as he turns back, mark the turn and get ready with your chosen high energy reinforcer. If things are going well, you will start to see your dog turn back to you faster and faster (put something in the bowl that is quick to pick up and eat – a single soft wet treat for example).
Keep track – is it working?
You might have to work at this exercise for a week or more before you see good results, or you might get good results quickly.
Either way, check to see if your reinforcer is really making the behaviour you want more likely.
How fast is your dog running out? How fast is it running back? A mad gallop, a controlled gallop, a fast canter, relaxed canter or a trot?
Keep track of your results, and if performance isn’t increasing, revisit your reinforcer – seek out something your dog really loves, even if that’s a game you need to spend a little bit of time building.
Put your new return back into your retrieve
Put out your food bowl, send your dog, deliver your reinforcement for a fast return.
Now keeping everything else the same, just swap the food bowl for a dummy.
The best ratio of food bowls with high energy reinforcers, for example thrown behind you, vs asking your dog to stop at you with a dummy, depends completely on your dog.
For some dogs – those tempted to run round with the dummy – might need to get into the out and back pattern a few times using a food bowl before you swap to a dummy. Others might just need an occasional reminder of the exercise using a food bowl.
Don’t worry too much if your dog looks for food when there is a dummy, or looks for a dummy when there is food. Just keep going and work through this. It’s just a matter of the dog learning the game – dogs easily learn the difference between what they are supposed to do with a food bowl and what they are supposed to do with a dummy. (Although if you have a dog like one of mine, who retrieves the food bowl, it can help to weigh it down to speed this learning!).
About the author
Heather Julie Clayton runs the Gundog Club, on behalf of the Gundog Trust and its Trustees.
She trains retrievers. The infamous Charlie, the beautiful Betsy, and the very, very talented Beanie – at Beanie Farm in Cornwall.