Postponing the Trained Retrieve Until After Teething

It's not unusual for traditional retriever trainers to delay Force Fetch, in which the dog learns the formal retrieval skills of "Out" (or "Give"), "Hold", and "Fetch", until after the dog has finished teething, around the age of six months.

Alice Woodyard uses the term "Trained Retrieve" to describe those training objectives, whether taught with a Force Fetch or in some other way.

Though my reasons may be somewhat different from the traditional ones, I'm inclined to think that 2Q puppies, like 4Q puppies, should also wait until after teething to begin work on a Trained Retrieve, allowing the puppy simply to drop a retrieved article when she loses interest in it, rather than deliver it to hand during those first six months.

One reason for waiting until after teething is that if the Trained Retrieve, which is the training that enables delivery-to-hand, is carried out when the dog finds it physically uncomfortable to carry a bumper or bird because of teething, that creates an unpleasant association with retrieving and a further unpleasant association with the specific articles that the dog encounters during that period.  That association is and will be countered by highly positive associations, but it nonetheless detracts from the reinforcement history that will largely determine your dog's behavior, and we'd like to avoid any such detraction if possible.  Those unpleasant associations, if they develop, may always remain as a silent influence in your dog's behavior.  In behavioral science, the saying is "You can never unring the bell."

Another reason for waiting is explained in Postponing Delivery-to-hand.

The months before teething can be exciting ones in a retriever puppy's development.  They include socializing the puppy during critical socialization windows that will never occur again, the puppy learning to learn thru early training like charging the clicker and "Sit", and introducing the puppy to field work, including gunner-thrown marks, water retrieves, and exposure to birds.  It's not as though the puppy has nothing else to do during those first six months.

In summary, it seems unnecessary, and potentially counterproductive, to require the puppy also to learn the Trained Retrieve during that period.