RETRIEVING

When thinking about retrieving it is important not to become confused between retrieving and handling.

Retrieving is the skill at witch your dog fetches, holds, and delivers a bird to you. And Handling is the skills taught to your dog to get them in a position to retrieve a bird.

Retrieving should be thought of as a three part process. Fetching the object, Holding onto the object, and releasing the object to the handler.

Some dogs are good at fetching, but poor at holding on to the bird thus dropping the bird on the ground short of the handler. Other dogs are good at fetching, and holding, but refuse to release the bird to the handler( lock jaw) Retriever training methods such as force fetching, trained retrieve, conditioned retrieve, etc are all ways that professional trainers help your dog become better at retrieving birds to hand.

some breeds are known to be better at retrieving naturally such as the labradore retriever and golden retriever. thus the name. other breeds are not as good naturally like english pointers, and english setters for example. once your dog has been trained to retrieve you may decide if you want the dog to deliver the bird to hand while comming in to you from the front. Deliver the bird to hand while sitting in front of you, or to deliver the bird at your side ( the heel position) the choice is yours.

A finished retriever at hunt tests and field trials are required to deliver the birds to the heel position.

Roger Hess