In Mike Lardy’s TRT program, the last step of Force Fetch is called Stick Fetch. The corresponding step in the PRT program is called Proofing the Walking Fetch. As with Mike’s program, the goals are to enable the dog to perform well with distractions, and to develop a powerful compulsion to retrieve and deliver even under difficult conditions. The difference is that we build that compulsion with positive (reward) rather than negative (avoidance) reinforcement.

The following checklists cover a cross-section of Walking Fetch proofing variations, which we’ll use in combinations to test the dog, and as a guide for strengthening reinforcement history wherever needed:

Locations

• Indoors
• Yard
• Enclosed field
• Meadow
• Vicinity of training group
• Training group
• Vicinity of event

Surfaces

• Grass, even and uneven
• Dirt
• Swampy ground
• Shallow water

Distractions

• Food
• Toys and balls, placed and thrown
• Bumper and birds, placed and thrown
• Live birds
• Children and adults, familiar and strange
• Dogs, familiar and strange

Articles

• Colors of bumpers
• Sizes of bumpers
• Ducks and pheasants, male and female
• Warm and cold birds
• Fluffy and wet birds

Once the dog is able to perform Walking Fetch under all those conditions in any combination, the dog is ready for some of the most difficult conditions of receiving a Fetch cue that might occur in competition. Of course you won’t be giving treats in that situation. In fact, you may not be using treats in the field at all, in training or competition. But this yard work has given the dog has a high reinforcement history for fetch and delivering, and the integration of those behaviors into retrieving in the field will continue to act as powerful intrinsic reinforcement.

In addition, the dog learns that delivery often leads to another retrieve, possibly the strongest reinforcer in a retriever’s psyche. Every time that happens in the dog’s training and competition career, the delivery is again reinforced.

With the accomplishment of proofing the Walking Fetch, Formal Fetch training in PRT’s yard work progression is complete.Then, based on Mike’s TRT Flow Chart, as shown in the parallel paths of yard work and field work, the dog is ready for us to start requiring delivery to hand in PRT’s field work progression. Whereas that requirement might have worked against our goals in earlier training because the dog might have been reluctant to return to the handler when it meant giving up the prized article, now delivery to hand, with its high reinforcement history from our Formal Fetch training, is integrated into the dog’s concept of the retrieve pattern. We are ready to go onto the next step of yard work.