SPORTING ANSWERS
Focus fading on retrieves
GUNDOG TRAINING
Q My labrador is just over a year old and was making good progress in her training, but once we started to lengthen the distance of her retrieves, she seemed to lose focus. It has become an issue on seen retrieves and is almost a disaster on unseen dummies. The shoot I pick up on requires some long-distance retrieving work but I am losing confidence in her. How can I fix this problem?
A You are asking a lot of her at this stage. All too often a youngster can appear to make really fast progress in its initial training, but when things like this start to happen it should ring warning bells about its true headway. We are all delighted when a youngster seems to have grasped something quickly, but the danger is we then ask a little more of the dog too soon. It’s important to always consolidate any achievement, even though you may think the dog wants and needs to do more.
In the case of your bitch’s retrieving issues at longer distances, I am sure this is because she was showing you all the signs of confidence at more modest distances and you felt she was ready for something
