re: OBers with retrievers

As far as the initial steps, just get to the point to where your dog listens to you 100% of the time on the basics, and I mean 100% of the time, no f'ups. After that, move on to tougher stuff. If you can make your dog stop after going after a cat with 1 word, you are ready to proceed.

I went in a round about way to get my dog to force fetch, but always held up 1 finger(my arse whipping finger) to his face and he would just freeze what he was doing. I also would put treats on his nose and not let him eat them for 10-15 minutes. He knows that you let him grab things after doing this. I think it built up his self control as well.

As far as getting him to hold stuff in his mouth, I would just make him sit right in front of me and look at him until I wanted him to release whatever he had in his mouth, and say "give it".

One night I gave him a piece of pizza crust and forgot about it. An hour and a half later I walked by and say a huge puddle of drool and a soggy piece of crust hanging in his mouth. I was amazed that he held it for that long.

I have seen videos of trainers trying to get their dog to force fetch in the field, and the damn dog is running around barely listening to them. That is not when you want to start. Being in control of your dog makes it much easier