Ted, with Grace when she was less than 6 months old I got a retrieving dummy. I had a load of grouse tail feathers and Kathy stitched them to a piece of cloth then I wrapped it around the dummy, applied liquid training grouse scent. We made a game of it... I would hold her, throw the dummy and holler BANG while holding her. Ten seconds after it hit the ground I would let her go. At the moment she is about to pick it up I command COME! or FETCH! Almost every time she would pick it up and run back to me. She was 5 months old when she retrieved her first grouse. But she’s one of thise dogs you read about that will not retrieve a woodcock. She retrieved her first half-dozen but she won’t anymore. She’ll pick it up and drop it right away and stand over it and tell me “You want it so badly, You pick it up!” She still retrieves grouse very well.
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"I'm a Setter man.
Not because I think they're better than the other breeds,
but because I'm a romantic - stuck on tradition - and to me, a Setter just "belongs" in the grouse picture."
George King, "That's Ruff", 2010 - a timeless classic.
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