Get a Grip: Proper Hold Training

Insisting on a proper hold on bumpers and birds is an important part of retriever training. Grabbing an object and then carrying and holding it with confidence is something we all expect from our dogs.

For reasons unknown, even the best of retrievers become sloppy sometimes. Biting down on the end of a bumper and carrying it like a cigar, grabbing the throw rope and trotting around with it like it’s a toy, giving the bumper or bird a little extra shake before delivering it—all irritating, for sure.

One school of thought is: Who cares? If the dog makes the retrieve, do style points matter? The flip side, however, is that these little irritants become habits, and habits become problems. A downed but still very much alive mallard that wriggles out of your dog’s mouth and escapes is not only wasteful but can also be a gut-punch to your ego. Especially with friends in the blind.

Retrievers that are properly force-fetched (meaning they’ve been through a formal “trained retrieve” program) are usually better-mannered than a dog that retrieves just for the fun of it. But even the best dogs sometimes take liberties with their hold.

Whether you regard lack of proper hold as a minor sin that you can forgive or you see it developing into a more severe problem, there are numerous steps you can take to avoid the issue altogether.

The Middle Matters

It makes perfect sense that trainers use dumbbell bumpers during force-fetch training: it makes the middle the easiest place for the dog to clamp down on the object. The larger ends present more of a challenge and, depending on what the dumbbell is made of, the ends might even be uncomfortable in the mouth.

Right from the start, force-fetching teaches a retriever to grab objects in the middle of the object. This is all fine and good, but keep in mind that before and after the force-fetching process, your pup will have countless opportunities to retrieve when you’re not right on top of the dog to make a correction. So keep an eye out for any bad habits that your dog might be showing, even when you’re least expecting it.

If you don’t understand force-fetching, get with a reputable retriever trainer and learn. If you’re from the “no pressure, my dog’s a natural” school, well, you do you. Regardless, insistence on proper hold should still apply if you want to build bragging rights on your excellent retriever known for miles around.

Developing Good Hold Habits

Multiple methods are available for developing good hold habits. Here are a few I’ve picked up on over the years, thanks to hanging around with retriever folks who have a thousand times more experience than I do.

Jessie Richards owns Full Throttle Kennel in Campbellsport, Wisconsin. With 20 or more dogs on her truck year-round for training, hunt testing, field trialing, and bird hunting, she’s seen a few things. One dandy little trick she showed me years ago was to simply use a paint roller as the retrieving object when working with young dogs that haven’t gone through force-fetch training from beginning to end.

A paint roller is uniformly sized from end to end. There’s no string to grab or narrow end to chomp down on, and it’s light as a feather. A dog really has no excuse to hold it anywhere except in the middle. And hopefully, that becomes a habit that carries through to the following stages of training.

Another option she emphasized when working with young dogs and using small-diameter bumpers is to simply not use a throw rope, eliminating the temptation to carry the object like it’s a toy.

Bumper size sometimes influences how a retriever carries the load. Small-diameter bumpers are super convenient when training multiple dogs or if you’re training with a group simply because it’s easier to pack and carry them in a vest or bucket. But in some instances, they encourage a dog to grab the end for that dreadful “cigar carry” or, because they’re so easy to handle, a dog might flip it and roll it in its mouth on the way back in. Surely that will lead to a drop, and then multiple drops, and that pattern will continue.

One fix that works in most cases is to use larger bumpers. Jumbo (3-, 4-inch diameter and larger) bumpers weigh more and are therefore less comfortable to carry from the end.

Getting Creative

When WILDFOWL “Retrievers” columnist Tom Dokken developed the Deadfowl Trainer in 1995, he touted the development of a proper hold as one of the main benefits. Anyone who has used a Deadfowl would agree that he nailed it. The head is hard, so it’s uncomfortable for a dog to pick it up there. The feet are hard and have an edge, so it’s no fun to grab it there, either. The body feels more like a real bird than a rubber bumper, so it’s just plain fun to carry and, in a dog’s mind, it’s probably the next best thing to feathers. Mix a Deadfowl into a pile of 10 regular bumpers and I’ll bet you your next bag of dog food that your dog will grab it before the others.

Retriever owners now enjoy all sorts of fantastic options that contribute to better hold habits. These include the Avery PerfectHold Hexabumper, Dive Bomb Industries X-Hale Bumper, and Gunner’s Man’s Best Bumper. All three of these offer some variation of a dumbbell shape to encourage a proper hold in the middle, and all are made of material that is (presumably, to a retriever) more enjoyable to carry than a hard plastic bumper.

Ultimate Goal

A commercial bumper has almost nothing in common with that first warm, feathered, fat-bodied duck you drop in the decoys on opening day. As always, practice like you want to play when it comes to retriever training.

If you’re serious about developing the best retriever you’re capable of, you owe it to you and your dog to get your hands on real ducks for training. Yes, commercially raised training mallards can be expensive and sometimes a bit of pain to get, but at the least you should try to mix them into your regimen every few training sessions.

Real birds will amp up your retriever’s enthusiasm. Using them also lets you catch and correct hold problems before the season starts. If getting dialed in and as ready as possible for this fall is your ultimate goal, and it should be, use all the great tools you have available. The payoff will be worth it.

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