Unless it was dead and feathered, Valen would not retrieve any object more than once. You can imagine how hard this was for me, training him as a service dog! I expected to have to force fetch him in order to get him to do what he was supposed to do.
A friendly local toller breeder, Bernie Barber, had me come over with Duff and showed me the ropes. It turned out Valen was more than happy to take, hold, and fetch over and over and over as long as what he was fetching was, well, dead and feathered.
We left the Barber home with pigeons wings. Yum! For a while, all I wanted Valen to retrieve was wrapped in wings... Eventually, he caught on that retrieving could be fun even if he wasn't dealing with birds! From that day on, Valen has been a steady, reliable retriever.
Valen has gone duck hunting on a number of occasions. Like all self-respecting tollers, he has been known to scream (not howl, not whine, but scream... it's a toller thing...) when a shot is missed and no bird is hit.
Now that we are in Minnesota, Valen may well have the opportunity to go hunting this coming fall. I'm sure he will be thrilled! Valen has been trained in the field and done well. This was the cause of many arguments between him and me: the whole retrieving to hand thing was okay, but the honoring? Letting another dog go for his ducks ? Oh no way, Jose!
Quack!