I sent my 8 month old female German Shepherd to a professional for advanced training. She doesn’t have much drive for the retrieve, should I send her back?

No, 8 month old dogs should not go through any kind of formal training, especially force exercises like the retrieve. This only kills the dog’s drives. A person should not call themselves a pro if they are accepting this type of work. I would think they are better described as a prostitute. There is little wonder that an 8 month old female would have little drive after going through forced retrieve work.

When I first started in Schutzhund you could not put a title on the dog until it was 13 months old. That has since been changed to 18 months because of the damage it did to was started too early when training young dogs.

The way I see it is that anyone that accepts a job doing force retrieve on an 8 month old dog is more concerned with his wallet than his client’s dog.