The Trained Retrieve - teaching the non-retriever to retrieve

The Trained Retrieve

Extract from "Passing Grade One", a Gundog Club Training Guide

serialised exclusively on The Gundog Club website this month

Tuesday 2nd May Part One - Explaining the Trained retrieve

Sometimes, somewhere along the way, the retrieving process will go wrong. Despite the handler’s best effort, good technique and plenty of advice, a dog may appear unable to focus on holding on to a dummy for any length of time, or may seem to have a real aversion to picking something up. This is less likely to happen in a gundog that comes from true working stock, especially if the retrieving process has been correctly handled. It is possible that his lack of progress in this respect is genetic.

Ideally of course it is best to begin the training process with a dog that demonstrates a clear desire to carry objects in his mouth. Having said that, some people have a dog that does not exhibit this natural instinct but would still like to teach him to retrieve.

About the trained retrieve

For these owners it is helpful to know that the full retrieve can be trained just as we train ‘heel’ or ‘sit’. A dog trained in this way may not have the flare and style of a born retriever for whom fetching is a passion, but he will enjoy his new game, and it will give the two of you chance to have some fun together.

Although we can train a ‘hold’ in the dog who persistently drops the dummy, by inserting the dummy into the dog’s mouth and associating this with a command, it is quite a skilled job best left to more experienced trainers. Carried out clumsily, there is a risk of really putting the dog off retrieving altogether. Neither does it solve the problem of the dog that will not pick up the dummy from the floor.

In this article we will show you how to train a full retrieve from the ‘pick-up’ backwards using clicker training. This approach is gentle and unobtrusive.

It will not interfere with any other training you are currently doing with your dog, and you can still carry out your normal obedience sessions. Keep your clicker sessions separate. You can do much of the early work indoors

Clicker training

Clicker training is an effective method of establishing a new behaviour. It is based on the science of operant conditioning and was developed for use with animals who cannot be corrected/punished or who do not respond well to correction.

The clicker itself is a small plastic box with a flexible metal plate on one surface. The piece of metal makes a distinctive snappy clicking sound when pushed. Unlike the human voice this sound can mark very precisely the tiniest movement of the dog. The dog can therefore be made aware of the most fleeting behaviours and rewarded for them, to increase the likelihood that he will repeat them in the future. The benefit of this precise marking is that behaviours can be progressively shaped, as we will see.

The clicker itself is not intrinsically rewarding to the dog but we make it so by conditioning the dog to associate the click with food. This process is known as ‘charging’ the clicker. It takes place over the course of a few days, and is essential before clicker training can begin. Once the clicker is charged you never have to do it again.

Charging the clicker

The purpose of charging your clicker is to condition your dog to associate the click with an edible treat. This association rapidly becomes so strong that the click itself is rewarding to the dog. However this effect is temporary so we continue to pair the click and the treat throughout the training process. The great thing is that, once properly conditioned, the treat does not have to exactly mark the behaviour we want to reinforce; it can follow afterwards when we have a spare hand or can get to the dog. The click marks the behaviour and continues to reinforce it, provided that we continue to follow the click with a treat. We will use the abbreviation C&T for click and treat from now on.

How to charge the clicker

1. Shut yourself and your dog in a quiet room alone together. Make sure you have somewhere to sit and a table on which to put a small container of treats. Keep the clicker in your hand.

2. Press the click and immediately throw the dog a treat. Wait until he has lost interest and repeat.

3. C&T randomly for several minutes. Each time you repeat the C&T make sure the dog is doing something different from the last time. You do not want him to associate the C&T with any of his actions, or with any specific pattern in time, at this stage. You are focusing on the link between the click and the treat.

4. C&T at least 20 times and then put the clicker and treats away.

5. Wait at least two hours and repeat the session.

Complete at least five sessions over at least two days.

Your clicker is now charged. Every time you press the clicker the dog will ‘feel good’, and he will now expect a treat to follow. Don’t disappoint him, though you can allow the gap between click and treat to stretch out by a second or two if necessary. It won’t lose its power provided the gaps do not become too long. The fact that the dog ‘feels good’ about the click makes it an effective way of marking behaviours you want him to repeat.

Next instalment - Wedesday 3rd May Making a start with the trained retrieve