by Kevin Sherrod
Several years ago I had the opportunity to attend a couple of classes held by the late Ron Roman. Many of our GNA members had the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge of this very gifted and experienced dog trainer and fellow VDD member; he also wrote a regular column in our GNA newsletter. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a couple of Ron’s workshops within a couple of weeks of one another. At this same time I was a green handler, preparing to have my first go with force fetch.
Since then, I have trained a few dogs using this method, not enough to be an expert like Ron, just enough to be comfortable with a training program that has been developed and proven by the likes of Jim Dobbs and Ron Roman. Recently I shared this program at my home with a group of handlers from Texas. Now, I have been asked to share this program with you, the members of GNA.
I give credit to Ron Roman, but he gave credit to Jimm Dobbs, who used to be with Tritronics. Many of you probably refer to the Tritonics Retreiver Training Maunal often, as I do. I believe that Ron had the fortunate opportunity to study under Jim Dobbs. It certainly seemed that he had an opportunity to work with, and gain a large amount of respect, from the individual. Ron referred to the method he taught as the “Dobb’s Hold Method” for a trained retrieve.
There is not enough room available in this newsletter to go through the whole program in detail, so I will have to reference the available material and discuss some of the finer points.
The “Tritronics Trained Retrieve” videos (Hold & Fetch) by Jim Dobbs do an excellent job of showing his older training program. The program that I will discuss is has changed somewhat from the one in the videos, but the material is similar enough that I think the videos are a valuable reference and a worthwhile purchase. This would be an excellent place to start. You can also go to the Dobbs website (www.Dobbsdogs.com) where specific articles can be found that reference this training method: The Trained Retrieve – Part I, A New Step When Teaching the “Hold” Command, Training for a reliable fetch.
Dobb’s Grip Method for Trained Retrieve – Outline
1) Walking the table:
The training table needs to be a positive place. Put the dog on the table, walking the dog up and down, and giving lots of treats. We want to make the dog love the table.
Note: There are loads of articles on how to build a training table (Tritronics Retreiver training manual p. 23). Any good work bench will do, however the longer the better (16 feet is a good length if possible). An overhead cable is also nice, but not a necessity.
2) Gloved Hand:
Attach the dog to a post to take away his option of flight. I like to use a hose clamp to attach the collar to the post, but you can use screws, nails, or other hardware to immobilize the collar. Hobbles work well here also to keep the dog from pawing at you while you work with the gloved hand.
While wearing a padded leather glove, place your hand in the dog’s mouth with the hand flat, palm down, with the index finger side of the hand going into the dog’s mouth first. This would center the two largest knuckles in the dog’s mouth with the thumb reaching under the dog’s mouth. You will likely encounter some resistance and you may have to pry the dog’s mouth open enough to get your hand in there. Apply pressure to the dog’s lower jaw with your thumb when the dog fights, relax and calmly praise when the dog complies. Use no command, except to give your release command when you want the dog to release the object.
Minimize in-out repetitions, the focus should be time in the mouth.
Shoot for 1 minute of compliance, 2-3 sessions should be enough.
Teach a release command for “out” (out, drop, give, etc…)
Give LOTS of praise as the dog begins to accept and hold your gloved hand.
3) Grip with Dowel:
Tie the dog to a short leash attached to the pole, to minimize it’s opportunities to resist.
Support the lower jaw for 1-2 sessions (training wheels). After that, apply ear pressure when the dowel slips out.
Begin to use “Hold” command to communicate the desired holding/gripping behavior.
Once again, minimize in-out repetitions, the focus should be time in the mouth.
Get the dog moving ASAP, and walk up and down the full length of the table.
At first, do a tug test each time the dog returns to the end of the table, then escalate to random tug tests from all directions, and at all locations on the table.
The goal is to make dog grip the dowel firmly and continuously all the time. No crunching or mouthing is allowed. Anytime the dog does not hold the dowel firmly tug on it while applying ear pressure to firm up the dog’s grip. Start small and progressively raise the bar on this one.
Continue “OUT” training. Require the dog to sit for delivery every time.
Move on to the next phase when dog is gripping the dowel well and walking the table. This step may take several sessions or more. Be prepared to spend lots of time on this one.
4) Grip and Fetch w/ Dumbbell:
Same steps as dowel for grip.
Transition from holding to pick-up using a “Fetch” command.
Do fetch in motion, short reaches first, then work to longer reaches down towards table.
Asking the dog to grab and eventually picking up the dumbbell in the same location can be helpful to the dog. We call this conditioning the pick up location.
Slide your hand through the dog’s collar and grab the ear. In this manner you can direct the dog forward and pinch the ear at the same time without pulling the ear. I find pulling the ear to be counter productive. It is helpful to have the dog pick up the object while in a forward motion, first from your hand, then from the table.
Continue ear pinch for incorrectly picked up items.
Once again, minimize in-out repetitions, the focus should be time in the mouth.
After the dog is picking up the object, have the dog come to you to pick up the object. After that, have the dog go away from you to get the object. Work fetch in both directions like this.
Be sure to walk the table with the dog after each pick-up, enforcing good grip behavior.
5) Transition to electric collar:
The dog must be reliably picking up different objects w/ ear pinch. He should also be antsy and pulling at the collar to get to retrieve objects on the table before he is ready to transition to e-collar.
Begin w/ lower level of stimulation and transition to higher level to speed up the dogs reach.
Condition the behavior.
Rely on ear pinch, not the e-collar for noncompliance. With time you can do more w/ the collar. With repetition and conditioning the collar can be relied upon more to push the dog.
6) Grip and fetch w/ bumper:
Go through steps 4 & 5 with a bumper.
Use a bumper with ends wrapped with barbed wire to promote center pick-up.
Spend time on EVERY step before moving on to the next one.
This is a good place to start with weighted dumbells if you plan to train for VGP, and need to condition your dog to the weight of the fox.
7) Grip and Fetch w/ real birds:
Go through steps 4 & 5 w/ frozen, thawed, & then live birds (start w/ rubber bird or dokken trainer)
Spend time on every animal the dog is expected to retrieve, furred & feathered
(I save the fox for later, but you can introduce it at this time as well).
8) Grip off table w/ Bumper:
Work dog on heel, sit, and here while holding a bumper. If the dog drops the object, reinstall w/ pressure.
Repeat with dokken trainer, real birds, and furred game.
9) Fetch off the floor:
Start with the dumbbell.
Condition the pick up location as discussed above.
Use the collar for reinforcement. Use only as much stimulation as you need to.
Repeat the process for bumpers, rubber birds, and real birds and furred game.
Do three dummy pick-up drill (can be found in Tritronics Retriever Training Manual, p.101).
10) Fetch to pile:
Start with bumpers and/or dokken trainers. You may need 15 – 20 objects or more.
Condition the pick up location.
Use “here” or “come” command at pick-up, combined with a little collar pressure to ensure a quick return of the dog.
Move to a farther pile and push dog to failure.
Force the dog to complete one more retrieve after he decieded to quit on the previous retrieve.
Do this again with real birds and furred game.
Now you are finally done! Remember to require good grip and clean delivery ALWAYS & EVERYWHERE!!!
Key Points to Remember:
Use positive reinforcement often—use treats to keep up attitude and gauge stress.
Collar use – remember to condition before you reinforce.
If you have to make the dog pick up the object, use the ear pinch, not the collar. Back up to the previous step if necessary.
Review your progress from the previous session before beginning new material.
If the dog has 2 failures in a row, back up.
Stop on a success, even if you have to go back and do something easy.
Stop early to ensure success, if necessary.
The trained retrieve is often the most stressful training that we do with our dogs. When dogs are stressed, they have more trouble solving problems and learning desirable behaviors. Treats can help to ease the stress load that training places on a dogs mind. Ron Roman taught me this valuable lesson and it has served me well. I give treats constantly during training. The dogs remain more happy and positive and seem to learn better. The treats also help you to gauge the level of stress in the dog. Generally, if the dog won’t take treats, things are getting too rough and the dog is likely not learning. You need to either lighten things up somehow; maybe a fun bumper or a game of chase, or you need to quit for the day and think about how to make things less stressful next time.
Test the dog constantly to make sure that it maintains a constant grip. Whenever you detect a loose grip, snatch away the retrieve object from the dog’s mouth and apply pressure to the ear, or with the collar, depending upon where you are in the training program. Teach the dog to hold on to the object until told to release, no matter how hard you pull on it (within reason).
This method offers the added benefit of lower stress on the dog, however I think the most important difference with this program is that it stresses the importance of the dog’s grip. I urge you to concentrate on teaching the dog to maintain a firm grip on the dowel before moving on to other training articles. I believe that hard mouth is caused by the action of gripping, and relaxing, gripping, and relaxing. If we can teach the dogs to maintain a constant grip without relaxing the grip at all, I think we can do a lot to prevent hardmouth problems.
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