Its a simple question. Many people struggle answering this when I ask. I base this off of hundreds of seminars around the world I have done and have asked this question many times. The two most popular things people struggle with are Heeling and Retrieves!!!  Most people struggle with mouthing. So I usually ask "Whats the education of your dogs retrieve?"  The answers are pretty amazing. Anything from "What does that mean?; to "I just throw the object and when the dog come back I tell them hold and if they don’t i jerk the collar or smack them in the muzzle".   The problem is if I don’t know the exact education of what the dog knows, I cant help. And if I am confused when you are telling me what the dog knows, Im pretty sure the dog is also!!!

The retrieve, whether it IPO, AKC, Ring sports, Psa or whatever, actually has a few pieces that must be trained individually. Ask yourself have you taken the dog through the 3 stages of learning on each piece? (there is a video on my website regarding the 3 stages of learning if you don’t know what they are)  Is your dog doing a forced retrieve or a play retrieve? What is the force? Does the dog understand HOLD? Has it actually been taught? Has the dog been shown what hold means and has an appropriate reward history with a secondary reinforcer prior to you correcting the hold? These are just a few questions you have to ask yourself. Once again I have tins of video on my website regarding all of this!!! 

These are all important things you must condsider and should be able to describe within a few sentences. Once again, If you struggle answering these questions, your dog is probably confused. Just something to ponder.......