Fairly large problem

[Bryan.M]

This past week or so,my 20 mos.male started freezing on the last bird on marks,so I went to singles of mult.guns and all went well for 3 days.This morning I set up a fairly challenging land double,and he marked well,but froze on the last bird.I packed up the gear and came home for some breakfast,did some yard work with the pup,and about 15 mins of fetch,hold,drop with a real duck with Mr.freeze,and he was great,like a robot.I said to myself we can work through this.

Afternoon,headed out to do some chinese blinds with Mr.Freeze and some water marks with the pup.First blind,he did well with a couple of whisles,but he froze bigtime and mouthed the bird to the point I could hear bones crushing.Each time I would reach for the bird he would squat down and crushed the bird.I had to grab the scruff of his neck and practically rip the bird out of his mouth.The bird was mutilated.

Early on in his training I found out that he would come apart at the seams from happy bumpers and get a little sticky,his eyes seemed to glaze over from exitement so I quit with the happy bumpers. When he froze on the blind his eyes were glazed over.

I am hoping some of you can offer some advice so I can get a handle on this as I really have my heart set on running this dog in the Delta Marsh trial in Sept.It will be our first trial and his only crack @ the juniors.
Sorry for the long winded post,any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Bryan.

[Retrievers ONLINE]

This past week or so,my 20 mos.male started freezing on the last bird on marks,so I went to singles of mult.guns and all went well for 3 days.This morning I set up a fairly challenging land double,and he marked well,but froze on the last bird.I packed up the gear and came home for some breakfast,did some yard work with the pup,and about 15 mins of fetch,hold,drop with a real duck with Mr.freeze,and he was great,like a robot.I said to myself we can work through this.

Afternoon,headed out to do some chinese blinds with Mr.Freeze and some water marks with the pup.First blind,he did well with a couple of whisles,but he froze bigtime and mouthed the bird to the point I could hear bones crushing.Each time I would reach for the bird he would squat down and crushed the bird.I had to grab the scruff of his neck and practically rip the bird out of his mouth.The bird was mutilated.

Early on in his training I found out that he would come apart at the seams from happy bumpers and get a little sticky,his eyes seemed to glaze over from exitement so I quit with the happy bumpers. When he froze on the blind his eyes were glazed over.

I am hoping some of you can offer some advice so I can get a handle on this as I really have my heart set on running this dog in the Delta Marsh trial in Sept.It will be our first trial and his only crack @ the juniors.
Sorry for the long winded post,any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Bryan.

Bryan

Re-title this MONSTROUS PROBLEM. Freezing is one of the most serious problems there is and when established one of the most difficult to eradicate. Freezing and Hardmouth are entirely differnt things but somehow it seems that your dog has both-actually quite rare. Most dogs that freeze do so at events and get away with it BUT they seldom freeze in training although they often show "little" signs. Your dog is displaying all this in training repeatedly (IT IS NOW A HABIT BTW). The only good news is that dogs that display it in training at least can be worked on. There are many solutions but most fall into the "patch it up temporarily" category. I have written a two part series on this which you may wish to get.

My advice? Get experienced help immediately before the habit is further entrenched. Call Colin to see what he can do. DO NOT even think about entering a trial until this problem has disappeared for at least 6 months!!!


Cheers

Dennis

PS. You asked!!

PPS. Freezing is usually a result of pressure (mostly mental) accumulated by the dog. It usually surfaces at 4-6 years of age. In a 20 month dog it signals something is amiss with the program. My hope is that your dog has hardmouth (which can be cured) and that his preoccupation with crunching the bird prevents release. However, the 3rd bird experience suggests it is also truly freezing.

[Bryan.M]

Thanks Dennis,I was hoping you would reply.I will be calling for a subsciption as soon as I finish this post.

I was hoping this problem cropped up from excitment of the dog completing his task,but I guess I have created this monster.I will have to see if Colin will work with me on this problem,and I will reset my sites on a Q next season.

P.S Dennis if you have written any articles titled Noose Tying 101, please set a copy aside for me.

Depressed,regards.