Lab Refuses ducks

I have a three year old lab who really loves to please and who will retrieve dummies and duck-shaped dummies all day with enthusiasm. She also loves to accompany me and my 6 year old lab on duck hunts, and is enthusiastic about the whole process (sometimes too much so) including watching for ducks in the air, snapping to attention when I call or prepare to shoot, and even running/swimming out to downed ducks. She is not at all gun shy, and in fact gets very excited by the sound of gunfire. If I could get her past one major problem, she'd be a fantastic duck dog. The problem is that once she gets to a downed duck, she simply sniffs it and turns away. She will not pick it up. I have taken her out in a field and alternately thrown dummies, fake ducks and real ducks, rewarding her for every successful retrieve. I've put bottled duck scent on her retriever dummies, and that does not bother her in the least. But she will not retrieve the real ducks. After the first few attempts, she even refuses to go out to the real duck when I throw it. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

[Tasha13]

I am by no means a professional..... but do you have a command for your dog to pick something up.....Like, fetch it up? or anything like that.....Have you done Force Fetch....Maybe that would help.

[murphydogs]

Dakota did the exact same thing. She was great while training, even with bird wings tied to bumpers, but refused to retrieve a bird. When I shot any kind of bird - duck, grouse, you name it - she would run to it, bark, jump up and down, and do everything but pick it up.
I believe that the best thing that I did was not train the dogs to honor each other's retrieves (yet). Dakota would "help" Sophie retrieve the birds and I allowed this because I hoped that it would benefit Dakota. At the age of 4 (we've had her 2 1/2 years), the light clicked on and Dakota retrieved her first bird this year and now has 3 retrieves under her belt.
Try tying bird wings to you dummies when you work with her. Make sure that you reward her for simply trying (not succeeding or even accomplishing anything) and above all don't get frustrated with her. Reward her for each baby step she takes and eventually the progression will lead her to retrieving. Since she's enthusiastic, don't train her with a heavy hand; her problem could be that, like Dakota, she's too excited and her mind locks up or goes blank.
Also thought that perhaps somewhere in her past, she may have misinterpreted a correction or a correction was given at the wrong time, etc. and she has it in her mind that she is NOT to retrieve actual birds.

have you considered how many times your dog may have been reprimanded for being attracted to 'stinky' things?
it might just be a good idea to get a really shot-up, 'yucky' duck and praise, praise, praise for any interaction, until pup sees you aren't trying to 'trick' her into 'being bad', as she seems like a very eager-to-please animal.
you can always 'escalate' into force-fetch, or whatever, but IMO eliminating the obvious is always a good place to start.

[Fowl Play]

You've got to use live birds/fresh shot birds in training. No amount of bumpers or bird wings can replace the actual thing in training. FF is also a good idea because when that's done, whatever you say to fetch, they will fetch; it becomes non-negotiable.

Thanks for the ideas, folks. Its good just to have some encouragement to keep after it.
We do use the Fetch Here command, but it sounds like we really need to reinforce it and possibly go to FF. I have never used FF in training, and I'm a bit nervous about doing more harm than good. But I'll do some research and give it a try if I need to. I think the idea that Gina's been reprimanded too much for getting into stinky things might well be an issue. I guess I never anticipated this problem and might have inadvertently turned her off to all things smelly, at least when she thinks she might get caught.

[Chippie Dog]

Is it ducks only or all birds?

Fowl Play is right...you want to use only the freshest ducks while you are working on this problem.

You could try using some live ducks to get her prey drive to kick in. Get her excited about them them and used to the feel/taste/smell of a fresh duck in her mouth. At first reward her willingness to try. You can raise your standards as she improves.

[TN_LAB]

Get a good training DVD and force fetch train your dog. I used SmartWork system and it helped a lot.