# Force Fetching



## brittanypoint (Feb 15, 2009)

I have done well with my brittany pup. He is now ranging excellently and pointing. He is even steady to wing and shot about 80% of the time. He still has his moments and so do I. Its mostly me doing the stupid stuff. However, he seems to have lost his desire to retrieve. He is by far the oddest britt I have ever worked on. Definately added some challenge to things that I thought I knew.

I need to know about force fetching. I have decided that its probably the only way to go for him. I dont know anything about force fetching. Can anyone give me some insight. How do I start? What do I need? Any info would be great.


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## royy2 (Sep 10, 2006)

Buy this book, follow it and your dog will be retrieving to hand in no time. 
http://www.gundogsupply.com/smfebyevgr.html

It also comes in a DVD. I too knew nothing about force fetching and I bought the book and followed it and it worked great. Good luck!


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## labhunter_1 (Apr 22, 2006)

I've got the book and dvd that I would sell. New the book sells for $20.95 and the dvd series sells for $49.95. I sell you both with shipping included for $45. They are in new like shape and do work very well for step by step directions on how to force fetch train.

Jeff


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

If you've never done it I highly recommend you find a trainer experienced with Brittanies (not a lab trainer) that specializes in FF upland bird dogs and pay to have the FF done.

You will save you and the dog a lot of grief.

I would go another season and see how he pans out first a lot of bird dogs natural retrieveing instinct kick in as they age


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## brittanypoint (Feb 15, 2009)

You will save you and the dog a lot of grief.

This is what I worry about with it. The dog is doing excellent now that we got past a few things. My other two brits retrieve naturally. I have no desire to screw this pup up. I have never force fetched a dog. Do you know of any trainers in Wyoming? I have looked but cant find any?


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

You will probably have to go to Kansas or Nebraska or Arizona to find a good Brittany trainer. Brits are soft willful dogs and IMO it takes someone with experience with that breed to deal with those traits. Of all the pointing breeds I've worked with they are hardest for me to train. I'm not saying they are hard to train they just need a gentler touch. They are very nice dogs.

If it was my dog I would just let it go for another season and see how it works out, or just do some hold drills

theres a sticky above for teaching that

Jealousy is a powerful motivator and hunting him with your other dogs may bring the natural retrieve out in him if there is any. You can have a dog FF at any age.


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## gonehuntin' (Jul 27, 2006)

If you want to do it yourself, Evan Grahams Smart Fetch DVD is about as low pressure as you can get. Thing is, if you're going to do it yourself, once you start, there's no backing out.

Here's the other thing about ff. It only really works if the dog wants to retrieve. Force fetch CAN awaken a latent desire to retrieve in a dog. What it CAN'T do, is to make a dog reliably retrieve when it doesn't want to.


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## brittanypoint (Feb 15, 2009)

Thanks for the interesting tips. I would like to find a trainer in my area. There are a few of us who have good brits but not any clubs or trainers. Bobm, you said they are soft. Thats why I like them. They are very easy to work and train. I got this pup from a breeder, and sad to say, I will never buy another one from them again. Nice people, but far from good breeders. My other two dogs come were cheaper and have been alot better to train. I shoulda demanded a refund, but, couldnt bring myself to get rid of the pup after all the hours I already had into him. He's a damn good pointer. I will hunt him this fall. Hopefully the jealous streak will kick in


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## royy2 (Sep 10, 2006)

I also looked into having a pro do it for me, but they wanted $1,000 to $2,000 to do it, which is outrageous in my opinion. Instead I bought the book for 20 bucks and followed along, and in 3 months my dog was retrieving to hand. I also took my time in doing it. You follow what Evan Graham says and you are not going to "screw your dog up". In the end, you'll be a hell of a lot happier that you trained your own dog instead of having someone else do it for you. It is no where near as hard as some make it out to be.


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