I posted this on the other side also.
I have a 4 month old lab that I have had for about 2 weeks. She is retrieving, will sit and then release it to my hand. Sometimes she jumps up on me first and then will sit. At this age should I be correcting this and making her sit and stay before she retrieves or just let her have fun for now and get more strict as she gets a little older? Right now I’m just happy that she is retrieving as good as she is.
DT
To make a long question short. How strict should I be during training at this point?
DT
No problem holding her before she does the retrieve. In fact this usually gets them more amped up to make the retrieve. I like to start by kneeling down and restraining the dog by holding them accross their chest.
Now even though she is sitting on the return you can train her to “place”. All this is is sitting on a platform. I use a piece of plywood on top of a old tire. Do a few short sessions of this and then toss the retrieve. The pup will more than likely return to the platform because it has become habit. If you stand by the platform you are training your dog to return to the position everytime. Once she is relible, remove the platform and have her return to your side.
the key is to keep the two seperate. You can start putting pressure on her to comply to a command but do it when training to sit and there is no retrieve involved. Tossing a fun retrieve after a quick sit session is fine. Then it is a reward.
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