Retrieve

[Anneke]

Our Dutch obedience training is a little different from the obedience I have seen on tv and youtube.
Never the less it is quite strict and static. Very difficult for me, since I use handsigns and voicecues... Now I have to fade my handcues for the big exam next year... Pfff that's going to be hard!!! We are only allowed a short handsignal in distance control...
Anyway we are training on the beginners level for a few weeks now and I have stumbled on to the parts where we, Jinx and me, are having trouble.
One is distance control, meaning a sit, down, stand while I am a couple of meters away from Jinx... We are working on that...

The other is the retrieve... Oh my how difficult!!!
Here is how it should be: dog sit next to you, you throw away a dummy, cue dog to retrieve, dog should come back, sit in front of you and hold dummy untill you take it.
Well...Here is where we are... Jinx will sit and hold dummy for a few seconds...(Needs a little more work)
Jinx will go get the dummy, but will not give it very willingly or drops it at my feet...BUT this is improving, she came to give the dummy perfectly three times yesterday!!
So that is going ok.
But now comes the hard part...
She needs to stay, while I throw the dummy. Well, I have not had a go at training this, so I don't know how that's going to go.
And... She just does NOT see, that she can sit down with the dummy in her mouth
When she sits she can hold it. When she stands, she can hold it. But when I ask her to sit down with the dummy in her mouth, she drops it and sits down

I know Jinx often takes a long time to get it, and then suddenly she has, what I call, a lightbulb moment, when she suddenly just does it right.
So we will keep working!!

 

[tigerlily46514]

I'm going to follow this thread,
as cue----the throw a toy, and have dog WAIT to go get it,
is a trick i've seen but have no idea how to teach. A guy down the street does this with his dog, is most impressive. His dog keeps his eyes on his face while toy is thrown, and won't budge to retrieve toy til he is told to.
.
wow, what a bummer you can't use hand-cues in obedience. hmmm. My dog much prefers a hand-cue.
.
GOOD LUCK, sounds like you are doing great and learning a lot! BET THE DOGS LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!

 

[Anneke]

I never thought I would like doing obedience, since I do think it is not of this time anymore, the static way you have to interact with your dog. One cue only, no handcues, no enthousiasme when things go right... I am the very opposite of this all...
When I clicker I usually shout YES with the click, I am impatient, so I repeat cues, I use a lot of bodylanguage(not always the right way) But Jinx makes me like it. She enjoys working so much, that I will do the national exam... Even though I know it is a tough one.

I have been thinking about how to teach her to stay untill released to do the fetch. Only thing I have come up with so far is to hold her by her collar and make her wait, when I throw the dummy. I thought I would start by just dropping it in front of us and then build on adding distance in the throw.
I will ask advice from my trainer next week and see what she says.
I have never thought this to a dog, so I am a little stuck here

 

[running_dog]

Anneke, that is more or less how I started to teach Zac how to wait before chasing his ball (I'm not going to call it retrieve as we're not that formal). Zac finds going for a dead ball much less fun than a moving one and he's not all that keen for a structured retrieve to start with. We can do a "wait" maybe once every 4 throws, making him wait longer increases his enthusiasm to go after the ball but reduces his enthusiasm to bring it back. I only trained this because it is about him controlling his chasing instinct.

At first I held his collar, then kept a finger on his collar, then stayed bent over but not touching, now I can stand up. I sometimes reward the wait with a treat (at risk of him forgetting where the ball is). I don't think just being released to chase the ball is enough for Zac as he gets that reward even if he doesn't wait. A man with working spaniels says I should also walk out sometimes and pick up the ball so Zac knows he does not always get to fetch it, that makes sense but I'm too lazy to do this very often.

 

[Anneke]

That is a good tip, Running dog, making the dog wait and go and pick up the ball yourself!! I think I will do this too, because Jinx is very good in anticipating. After a few repeats she knows what's coming so she will go do it without a cue.
This might help make it unpredictable for her, so she will have to wait for my cue.

Anyway, I just did another session.
Sit an hold the dummy. I was clicking for durance, so i made her stay and took a step back. Yes!! Perfect!!

Go fetch the dummy. Throw it and make her come back to give it without turning her head away. This was a problem. She would come back, but turn her head away from me to keep me from taking her dummy/toy. So I used our highest value treats and it is getting much better. 8 out of ten she did it right, yeah!!!

Now I thought it was time to go to the next step. come and sit down while holding the dummy.
So I waved the dummy around, to get her focused on it. As soon as she took it, I cued the sit. First time she dropped it.
Second time I added the another cue to the hold it. Stay! And then she got it!! She sat down, holding the dummy! Party!!!!!
And Jackpot!!! Did this four times and was able to throw four party's and jackpots!

Then I made the mistake of trying to make her stay while I throw the dummy. Well, that was a little too much. First I get her all excited to go get the dummy and now I want her to stay... She got confused... Stupid me
I will have to train this separately from the other steps.

But I am sooooo proud!!! She got it!!! Whoohooo!!!

 

[sara]

I had a little thought. What if, instead of throwing the dummy at first, ask her to stay, then go PLACE the bummy, then walk back to her then cue her? After she get's used to waiting until the cue, you can start going part way, throwing the dummy a little way, then walking back and cueing, eventually working at moving away from her less and less, and throwing the toy more and more.

The other thing I would do, is if she breaks stay before being cued, (after you've worked a bit with her) just walk away, no more treats, no more fun work.

Might work better than just holding it, and ignoring her for anticipating the cue and just ending the game, may just stop her anticipating.

 

[Anneke]

Sara, that is a great idea!! Especially because she is very eager to fetch! I will try this, I think it might work!!

 

[Anneke]

Ok I made a video of our session today. Started training the sit stay, while the dummy is thrown. Thanks again, Sara, it seems to work!!
Here is Jinx

Here is Cooper. With Jinx being a distraction. I really have to work on her stay...