I have a 5 mo old black lab male. I have been doing “the walk” with him every day now. He was retrieving great till about three days ago. Now it seems like I get two good retrieves out of him then he runs out to get the bumper, brings it about half way back, then drops it and eats some grass or smells something. He looks at me when I tell him to come. I have a check cord on him so I can bring him back but he doesn’t bring the bumper with him. When I get him back at my side, he wants to go get the bumper that he left in the field, so I let him. He runs out, picks up the bumper, drops the bumper again and starts to eat the grass or smell the ground or… What am I doing wrong? Thanks for all your input.

Teething.
Use a paint roller or an old sock stuffed with old socks.



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Probably teething, but dropping the bumper and eating grass/smelling stuff is classic "displacement activity." Try Wikipedia or other sites for discussion and definition. Are you sure you have not given this baby dog any cause not to want to come to you, to be afraid of coming to you, with that bumper? If you have, now is the time to start thinking about how you are going to avoid that in the future.

Jere

Thanks guys the paint roller worked great. I am sure I will be posting 300 more questions in the comming weeks.