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Post by ripley on Sept 7, 2004 2:57:59 GMT -5
OK.. Ripley NEEDS to learn how to bring things back to me. BUT, the "put him on a leash and reel him in" thing isn't an option, because he's been trained not to chase stuff when he's on-leash. So, aside from that, does anyone know of a nice, fun way to teach a retrieve to a toy-possessive dog? (Also, the 'toy switch' doesn't work. Once he starts playing with one toy, he gets attached to it and ONLY wants that one toy. )
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Post by amyjo on Sept 7, 2004 11:12:26 GMT -5
I teach it in the bathroom ....It is a small confined space with out much else to do...It is easy to get the item back from the dog because they are pretty much right there. So you practice take and give with the toy - offering a treat or praise when he releases... Eventually toss the toy into the corner of the room say "bring it" and then "give" eventually he will get the idea of take, give and bring....in the small room the bring is pretty automatic because the dog prolly only needs to turn around and there you are! ;D
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Post by FourPawsTwoFeet on Sept 7, 2004 12:05:16 GMT -5
I taught Cooper the retrieve by shaping it. I think you've said in the past that Ripley is afraid of the clicker, but you could use a marker word instead. "wow!"/treat instead of click/treat, for example. I brought Coop out to the park full of distractions for this, just because I didn't have the time to carefully add them in. He had to learn it within the week, as the previous flyball class was a total bust and I didn't want to go through that again. I also brought his favorite treats, a tennis ball, and a clicker. The criteria for a click/treat (or a "wow"/treat) starts very, very low. He looked at the ball, CT. Once he was reliably looking at the ball, I "forgot" to click him. Frustrated, he mouthed the ball, CT. Once he was reliably doing that I forgot to click him for mouthing, and he picked up the ball, CT. The whole time he's coming back to me for treats and dropping the ball, so now I clicked for holding the ball for longer until he was dropping it at my feet. The distance he had to bring it back steadily increased also. To get his speed up I would run away from him when he was bringing the ball back. After a few days of reliable long distance retrieves I started him on variable reinforcement to get rid of the need for treats. Sometimes he had to retrieve twice to get a treat, sometimes 5 times, sometimes 6, sometimes he'd get ear scritches or a pat on the chest, etc. If you want a competitive quality retrieve you'll probably want to go with a different method, but this one worked for me, and it holds up very well for flyball. It's also a lot of fun, I got to see the wheels turn as he tried to figure out what would get him a click. It might work for you. Edited for poor spelling, and again because I put this note in the wrong spot.
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Post by Iluvmypup on Sept 7, 2004 13:32:08 GMT -5
Well said, FourPawsTwoFeet...I couldn't have explained it better myself. ;D Thats how I did it with all my dogs, and it works great. Its amazingly fast to teach, as well. Good luck!
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Post by ripley on Sept 7, 2004 13:43:19 GMT -5
Amyjo, I'm training Dakota to retrieve in the hallway. (Doesn't work for Ripley though)
I'll try the shaping suggestion. Ripley is less afraid of the clicker after hearing it for 5 days straight, so I think I'll use that..
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Post by FourPawsTwoFeet on Sept 18, 2004 20:37:46 GMT -5
Hey RG, any luck with the retrieve? Ripley is ready to retrieve a hotdog from a lake 50 yards out for nothing more than a smile and a kind word, right? ;D
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Post by ripley on Sept 19, 2004 0:42:53 GMT -5
What, Ripley have hotdog, a cooked processed food product, in his MOUTH? Never. LOL man I'm getting psycho about this, especially considering all the junk food I eat. But actually it's going well, he'll never be great at it until he gets neutered, because he's SOO spastic, but he'll retrieve for me if I have another toy in my hand, which I think is good progress. (Since before he wouldn't bring it, regardless)
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Post by FourPawsTwoFeet on Sept 19, 2004 10:18:07 GMT -5
I forgot about the poor quality of hotdogs..perhaps an RMB instead? Congrats on the progress, sounds like you two are doing very well.
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Post by ripley on Sept 19, 2004 14:44:51 GMT -5
LOL yes. Thanks for the help, he's doing really well. Now if only he could start catching a frisbee, with the heights he can jump he'd rival those BC's and Aussies you see on TV.
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Post by FourPawsTwoFeet on Sept 19, 2004 15:52:44 GMT -5
Sometimes it helps the dog to understand catching pre-drop if you do "rollers" before actually throwing the frisbee. Here's a link with video of a roller: www.discdog.com/training/video/index.htmlIt might work to get Ripley to understand what you want A lot of times flyball tournies also have disc dogs and agility - it's really cool to see those dogs fly! Now if only I could learn to throw a frisbee ;D
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Post by ripley on Sept 19, 2004 18:30:24 GMT -5
Heh, my dog needs to learn to catch treats before he can start on frisbees.. But hey, one more thing to add to our goals.. (A list that is about 10 pages long. LOL) He's still a bit young for super-strenuous stuff like disc work, I even worry about him doing 4 or 5 agility jumps a day. Thanks for the link! ;D
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Post by FourPawsTwoFeet on Sept 19, 2004 20:25:57 GMT -5
well, maybe you'll be able to use the link someday. I was super protective of Coop's joints before his growth plates were set too. During our agility classes all the jumps were on the lowest setting possible, or the bar was just placed on the ground. So, I can relate to the uber-protectiveness Good for you for taking his age into account though, silly me completely forgot he's still a puppy. You can still probably start doing some of the ground work (take-it, rollers) now though, if disc training is something you want to get into.
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Post by ripley on Sept 19, 2004 22:58:18 GMT -5
I'm protective of Koda's joints as well, it REALLY ticked me off today when my brother was encouraging him to jump, jump, jump, jump. (That pup must have jumped 400 times today, no exaggeration)
I'm going to start doing 'rollers' and get him to enjoy the disc. (if i can find one tiny enough for him!)
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