Bought a lab about 18 months ago and worked with him on basic obedience commands and retrieving. Then I deployed to Afghanistan, when I was at home on leave about a month ago I had him in the boat and retreiving in the water and had no problems. However, I have only thrown the dummy for him and never used a launcher or anything. What am I going to have to do to make him see the duck fall and then go after it? I am kinda lost at this point. I won't be able to work with him a whole lot until the season, because thats when I get home. Any suggestions?

Have sumone hide behind an obstacle down range of where you and da dog are and let dem throw a dead duck for da dog to retrieve.

Makes sense, thanks

You can also start using a word like "mark" before you throw the dummy. after a while he will start looking out in front of you or in the air knowing something is about to fall.

I leave my dog on sit, walk away and give the "watch" command. I then throw the dummy and release him from where I am. He is still watching me (bad) but is not looking for his retrieve to come from where he is sitting (good). It does set him up for using "watch" to get him to look out for his mark. Best I can do by myself.

It's always good to have someone help you train to get the dog to see the retrieve ahead and not come from you . but there are a lot of times where others are busy. you can get you a few birds and launch them w/a clay pidgin launcher ( have to do some rigging up) , but it works well. Put you a long string and that a way you can command Sit. Mark . pull the string to launch the bird and shoot. Then send on retrieve and return bird to hand. (It's always better if you teach um young to sit b4 releasing the retrieve. It help prevent them from picking up the habbit of not bringing the birds all the way to you.