help needed with ball obsessive jumper!

Help and advice needed

I have a very bouncy boisterous 2 year old SBT/JRT. She loves to play fetch with her tennis ball or her ball on a rope. She brings it back with no problems and most of the time she drops it with no problems. However, as soon as I pick the ball up (either with my hand or the ballthrower) she starts to jump up. I get her to sit and wait (she doesn't take her eyes off the ball and you can see she is like a coiled spring) but as soon as i move my hand to throw the ball, she leaps up and snaps for the ball and she can easily jump up 5ft.

I have tried turning my back on her each time she jumps up but i just end up getting dizzy cos she is in front of me again in a blink of an eye!

I always praise and reward her when she is sitting nicely, but still every time i move the ball she leaps at it. it's almost like she gets too excited and can't help herself .

I feel that it is a problem that is getting worse and today she actually caught my hand when leaping up and drew blood.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

We used to have that with Skye, but we used a rattle tin...(tin with pebbles in and sealed), so each time she did it we'd just dropped the tin, sharply, right by her, the noise put her off from doing it, and now she doesn't do it anymore. Will need doing quite a few times and don't say anything to her, the idea being that she will think, if i jump up a load rattle happens.......if that makes sense. Know what you mean by catching your hand, I had it happened to me a few times

I would teach her "stay" so she holds a sit while the ball is thrown, and then is released to chase it.

If you have a look at this website, it has instructions for beginning stays to stays with distraction (a ball throw!).
http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOG...g1/levels.html
Stays start at level 2.


Kudos for you for wanting to fix this problem! I have a scar on my foot where a dog grabbed my foot instead of the ball I was booting - It's an important thing for dogs to learn!

My Ellie does this, in fact she is so ball obsessed that if she even thinks I have a ball with me she wont even go to the loo! So first it was no ball games until you have been then I wont throw it if the jump up and eventually it does work but she has drawn blood too!
Becky

Actually if you are already getting her to sit and wait while you pick the ball up you just have to extend the wait. I would repeat the wait command, while pointing at the floor with my other hand as I raise the ball to throw. If she starts to jump before you've chucked the ball do a loud Ach or Tsst and put your arm back down and revert to the sit and wait stage, repeat constantly. rewarding with praise etc. every stage she gets right. You're already half way there. Also it's a good idea to just get her used to the ball not being thrown all the time, I teach mine to leave the ball alone while I'm waliking along with it dangling in my hand. Can she do this or is the problem just when you throw?

To get my dogs to wait until it had been thrown I would at first hold onto their collar with one hand (with the stay command) and throw the ball with the other command.

I also always use a 'release' command when I want them to get the ball ('go') - this way, they are less confused about when they can and can't go after it (and it means you can make sure the ball has left your hands before she tries to catch it )

I used to have this problem. I used a ball on a rope to safeguard my hand and turned it into a training exercise. If she moved towards the ball I would take my hand away. Progressed to holding it (from the rope) - again, if she tried to snatch the game was over . This method worked for us, but it did take a while.