Training #2, Positive Hold, Fetch

What is force fetching and why does every dog need it? I will answer this and it may surprise you a bit. This is the step where we quit trying to coax the dog and actually start training. It isn’t quite so much Mr. Nice guy as before but it’s the first step to complete communication with your dog.

Forcing sounds inhumane in a sense but really all animal training is forcing our will on the dog to do something we want him to do. Even in retrieving all a dog wants to do is go find that food so he can eat it. Giving it to us is a trained response so is that humane? I consider it to be but if you are PETA or some tree hugger, scroll on to a nice page that suits you, goodbye. No one asked you here.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen inhumane training of retrievers and it’s sickened me to think about it. In the old days there were some techniques that were utilized that I shudder to even think about. The toe pinch, the garrote, the prod. Anyone that feels they need to use these activities to train a dog is a BAD trainer. Stay away from those guys.

I use the ear pinch. Sounds a bit tough but right from day one it produces results and the dog begins to fully understand the purpose of his life and you begin the journey of communicating with your dog. Much of proper dog training produces what I still consider to be magical results. I learned that from spending time with my friend Danny in Texas. The whole basics program is a simple set of activities but when done right in the correct sequence, produces effects that can only be described as magic. It’s very hard to explain other than to say if you do a step properly in the yard, it will produce sometimes many results in the field in a positive way. I have no other way to describe it other than magic.

So, to get back to why every dog need this. Firstly, it establishes the basic fact that you are going to take charge of your relationship. That’s probably what most people understand. Here’s where it gets interesting. You are showing the dog a learned behavior through a procedure that initially gives him no choice in the matter. Your first session will be nothing but a rodeo of pinching ears and shoving a bumper in their mouth. Soon in future sessions you will see a rapid change in the dogs behavior and he’ll be reaching for the bumper. It’s almost like a light switch getting turned on. You are programming in a response to an effect. It changes the dog. Boom, magic.

Some people think of force fetching in linear terms. It’s programming the animal to do a specific task like a machine. STOP! Ingest that statement and then throw it out with the trash in the deepest dumpster you can find. Teaching your dog the fetch does so much more than that. It actually changes their attitude towards training and towards you. Done properly it will instill confidence from your dogs perspective and prepare him for what is to come in future days ahead. Force fetching is not the end result of anything. It’s only the beginning of many steps and thousands of days of training. It opens a part of your dogs brain that was previously untapped where there is a virtual blank page and a whole blank book just waiting for you and him to write in it together. Done properly it increases the retrieving desire and gives the dog no doubt about what his purpose in life is. There’s more to come afterwards but this is where it starts.

When you hear someone say their dog doesn’t need force fetching because he picks up bumpers all on his own, perhaps I gave you just a bit of insight on why that is so misinformed.