You have to teach your dog to jump into the truck as she gets older. Learn more about training your retriever to jump into the truck at
easyretrievertraining.com/tra...
At 3 months old, it is not a big deal, but as your dog gets to full-size (60 to 80 pounds depending on the breed), you want them to be able to get into the truck on their own.
Getting your retriever to jump into the back of the truck is simple, but it can take a lot of patience and repetition--just like everything else when it comes to retriever training.
The key to training a dog to jump into a car or a truck is to make the jump really easy. Some people do this by adding a step. I like to just find some place where the natural grade of the earth makes it easy. A sloping hill that I can back up to or even a pile of dirt.
I use the command LOAD UP to get my dog to jump into the truck. So, I give the command and then hold a treat in the bed of the truck. Once the dog goes into the truck bed, she gets the treat. If you want you can just put the treat in the bed.
As your dog gets the idea, you slowly make the task more and more difficult. There are so many things about retriever training that are the same regardless of the task. This is the basic process to any kind of dog training that you will do. Break the overall process up into smaller segments. As your dog masters pieces of the overall skill add something new. When I train a dog to jump into a truck or train a dog to jump into a car, I am working on pieces of the skill until they develop a sense of confidence. That is what retriever training is all about whether your are trying to get them to jump into a truck or a car or the lake.
Eventually, the dog is jumping from a flat, level surface up into the truck without thinking twice.
Remember, that just because your dog successfully performs the task once or twice, that does not mean that she is going to perform it flawlessly from then on. In fact, at the end of the video, you will see that Lady, after jumping into the truck several times, just stops. Watch to the end to see how I handle that situation.
The question of the day: What is your favorite dog treat to use when training dogs? Leave me comments below.
For more ideas on everything to do with retriever training check out www.easyretrievertraining.com