register for free
View our sister sites
Our sister sites
Our sister sites
Our sister sites
talassie
Dogsey Veteran
talassie is offline  
Location: yorkshire
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,629
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 05:06 PM

Can anyone help me train a formal retrieve?

I have been working on a competition retrieve with Tala for weeks.
We started off with clicker training asking her to sit and hold a ragger, then to pick it up of the floor and sit and hold. All ok there.
She will now run out and pick up and turn around and sit. What she won't do is come to the present position with the toy. If I put her on the lead and guide her in she drops the toy and goes totally flat. If I say 'come' she drops the toy and comes to sit in front .
She has always had a tendency to move backwards when she sits anyway even in heelwork and we are working on this.
So the bit that is missing is coming to the present position in front with the object in her mouth.
Any ideas anyone?
Reply With Quote
Ramble
Dogsey Veteran
Ramble is offline  
Location: dogsville
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 16,141
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 05:47 PM
Cosmo was like this for ages. We refused to give the treat to him or acknowldge the toy until he had it in his mouth, we would say get the toy repeatedly. We were teaching it with a ball in the park though....so not sure how useful that would be? He now always picks it up if he drops it and offers it to us....I trained the initial part with a clicker, very like you have done. The rest took 300 practices everyday in the park.
Reply With Quote
skilaki
Almost a Veteran
skilaki is offline  
Location: n/a
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,062
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 06:05 PM
Have you taught the formal recall to the present position, as essentially it is the same request except that with the retrieve the dog is holding a dumbell in her mouth. Try calling her once she picks up the dumbell as you would for a formal recall and use the same body cues and she might revert to doing a present like in recall. If you've tried this sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs lol
Reply With Quote
Thornesstaf
Dogsey Junior
Thornesstaf is offline  
Location: Essex,UK
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 87
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 06:51 PM
I had the same problem with Tia, she would come back to me and sit in front of me but would spit the item out everytime. What I did was to make a game of it at first and just got her bringing it back to me but when she dropped it I would turn and walk away from her causing her to pick it up and follow me, as soon as she did that I would say "hold" in a happy high pitched voice, only when she picked it up again would I throw the item again. She soon learnt "hold", then I put it all together with the same cues I use for recall, now she does it brilliantly! I also used the word "bring" instead of "come". Hope that helps?
Reply With Quote
talassie
Dogsey Veteran
talassie is offline  
Location: yorkshire
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,629
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 07:27 PM
Originally Posted by Ramble View Post
Cosmo was like this for ages. We refused to give the treat to him or acknowldge the toy until he had it in his mouth, we would say get the toy repeatedly. We were teaching it with a ball in the park though....so not sure how useful that would be? He now always picks it up if he drops it and offers it to us....I trained the initial part with a clicker, very like you have done. The rest took 300 practices everyday in the park.
She is not a keen ball chaser but can get enthusiastic at times about chasing the ball with a lot of encouragement but not so keen at bringing it back. You are right that this play retrieve is part of the problem because she drops the ball when she gets near. Something to work on.
Reply With Quote
talassie
Dogsey Veteran
talassie is offline  
Location: yorkshire
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,629
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 07:30 PM
Originally Posted by skilaki View Post
Have you taught the formal recall to the present position, as essentially it is the same request except that with the retrieve the dog is holding a dumbell in her mouth. Try calling her once she picks up the dumbell as you would for a formal recall and use the same body cues and she might revert to doing a present like in recall. If you've tried this sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs lol
She will do a good recall to the front but not with the toy/dumbell. With the command 'come' she instantly drops whatever she is holding.
Reply With Quote
talassie
Dogsey Veteran
talassie is offline  
Location: yorkshire
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,629
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 07:32 PM
Originally Posted by Thornesstaf View Post
I had the same problem with Tia, she would come back to me and sit in front of me but would spit the item out everytime. What I did was to make a game of it at first and just got her bringing it back to me but when she dropped it I would turn and walk away from her causing her to pick it up and follow me, as soon as she did that I would say "hold" in a happy high pitched voice, only when she picked it up again would I throw the item again. She soon learnt "hold", then I put it all together with the same cues I use for recall, now she does it brilliantly! I also used the word "bring" instead of "come". Hope that helps?
Not sure that Tala would pick it up again if I walked away but definitely something to try. It just hasn't clicked yet!
Reply With Quote
Ramble
Dogsey Veteran
Ramble is offline  
Location: dogsville
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 16,141
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 08:03 PM
Originally Posted by talassie View Post
She is not a keen ball chaser but can get enthusiastic at times about chasing the ball with a lot of encouragement but not so keen at bringing it back. You are right that this play retrieve is part of the problem because she drops the ball when she gets near. Something to work on.
WE stopped the ball play for a while as well thinking about it and had one of those airkong stick things so it helped him to get the idea. When we went back to a ball we started off with one of the large air kong ones so it was easier for us to catch it if he accidentally dropped it too soon. He now doesn't drop the normal sized tennis balls (ar kong ones again) and holds them til we take them.
Reply With Quote
Shona
Dogsey Veteran
Shona is offline  
Location: grangemouth for the moment
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 14,890
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 08:15 PM
the other thing you can try is.......

with the dog in front in the formal recall position, you can then train, Hold.{holding the dumbell in front of the dog just in front of there mouth}.dont be tempted to snatch the dumbell from the dog if it looks like hes going to drop it, always try to praise the dog with the dumbell in its mouth to the point were you can pat your dog on the side and give lots of vocal praise while hes holding it without the dog wanting to spit it out

......and then train leave..

when the dog is confident with both commands, start to take a step back asking the dog to come up while holding....
take it easy and keep it light, retrieve can be tricky untill the dog knows exactly what you want,

when you can do a few steps, then start to hold the dumbell lower and ask the dog to hold and come up, the dog will get used to moving away from you to take the bell and coming back to you with it,

then start to place it on the floor and ask them to hold and come up,

tada...you can start to throw it and ask the dog to hold and come x
Reply With Quote
mishflynn
Dogsey Veteran
mishflynn is offline  
Location: Cardiff, UK
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 6,033
Female 
 
15-05-2009, 08:20 PM
Id start doing very short presents/recalls with dumbell in mouth ,

Dumbell in mouth:literally one step back, Get her in present, step back ,say come, step back say come, then keep stepping back so you are walking Backwards not stopping & she is walking forwards. Every noew & again tell her to sit, "fantastic" hold, go again, dont take it from her at this point.

Once shes doing this try a SHORT recall. Start from the present though, NOT the close. Get her in present, dumbell in gob, "fantastic hold" stroke her head,"wait" two or three steps back, "come" walk back two steps & "sit" "Fantastic hold" brilliant girl etc, ,build up distance, again dont take it too much as this stage or she may start spitting it out. Then work up to a full recall holding dumbell.

Next build up to , leaving in recall, your dumbell in hand, place the dumbell half way between you, tell her to "HOLD" firmley & hopefully she will picvk it up on the way!!!!
Reply With Quote
Reply
Page 1 of 2 1 2 >


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools


© Copyright 2016, Dogsey   Contact Us - Dogsey - Top Contact us | Archive | Privacy | Terms of use | Top