Liesje
Blue Crack Addict
OK, I love dogs, especially larger ones, but I've never actually owned one. Right now I'm at the cottage with my family and some extended family. My uncle has a chocolate labrador retriever. She's just over a year old. She's extremely hyper and energetic. For example, this morning she ran 5 miles and still went nutso a few hours later when we let her off to do her business. She knows "sit", "stay", "fetch", and supposedly "heel", though I've given up on walking her b/c she pulls so hard she starts wheezing (she does always stay on the left though). To my uncle's delight, I've been spending a lot of time with her so I can get used to controlling a bigger, high strung dog. She retrieves flawlessly. I have her sit and stay at one end of the dock, toss the "duck" off the other end, and on my command she'll fly off into the water. She has no fear of the water and is an excellent swimmer. There's two things that all of us are having trouble with though: 1) once she retrieves the "duck", if you don't take it from her in the water before she can get her feet under her, she runs away. She'll bring it back, but then as you grab it, she pulls away like it's a game. This is very bad b/c she doesn't know the difference between the duck and a toy. 2) when she's supposed to be sitting and staying and we reach around to unhook her lead, she has a habit of tossing her head back and snapping and also she will jump up and bite your hands if she's not being distracted by the duck.
So, how can we get her to release the duck on our command quit with the nipping and biting?
So, how can we get her to release the duck on our command quit with the nipping and biting?