Perfecting the perfect delivery to hand

I often get asked how do you get that perfect delivery to hand. The question you have to ask is whether there is such a thing as the perfect delivery/retrieve. All of my dogs deliver to hand but with their own unique twist to the end. Does it mean it’s not perfect, no! They’ve gone out and delivered back to hand. Over the coming months I’ll be producing some videos demonstrating how to work on retrieves and explaining corrections.

Often the problem of retrieving to hand starts at puppy stage. How often have you chased your puppy around the house trying to get that article back they shouldn’t have. This is creating a game that your puppy thinks is acceptable, in fact I encourage all my puppies to deliver to hand anything they get hold of no matter what it is, even horse poo. Reaching out like in the photo above can also encourage your dog to run around with the retrieve article. Staying calm, being positive and encouraging your dog to come in to you will help. More importantly, before you introduce your dog to retrieving, work on your recall. If you don’t have recall, with out a high reward retrieve article you’ll never get them to deliver without playing.

Posted: February 1, 2019