Training assistance dog skills, retrieving dropped objects

I have been trying for a year now to find a trainer that can help me train Moxie to do a few simple tasks that would help my Mother who is disabled and wheelchair bound. Specifically I want Moxie to pick up an item my mom has dropped and hand it to her. And I want her to go and get the phone on command if my mother falls. Moxie is already so smart and well bonded to my Mother as they are together all day everyday for the most part. I think Moxie can learn these things and will really be helpful to my Mom, if I could just find someone to teach me how to teach her.

Part of the problem is the retrieve. Moxie retrieves toys, balls and bumpers just fine and would do it all day every day if I let her. But I can't get her to generalize that to other things, like a dumbell for instance. The only advice I can seem to find on this is to do a forced retrieve which I can tell you right now is NOT going to work with her. She's too soft. She would shut right down and I'd never get her to retrieve anything. I know I need to find a way to make it a game for her, but I'm just fresh out of ideas.

Meanwhile, I've emailed three different people who claim to train assistance dogs and offered to pay for their advice, so far, no one has taken me up on that offer.

Does anyone here have any suggestions, or know of anyone who might be able to help??

How about trying to find someone who trains dogs for films/movies or someone who does a lot of trick training? The will be used to teaching all kinds of different things and I'm sure they could apply their knowledge to assistance work.

is the problem that she won't pick something up that she doesn't perceive as hers or she doesn't understand what you want (or that she knows what you want but doesn't have the enthusiasm to do it) ?

Teaching them to pick things up on command is relatively easy, all of mine do it, but the phone etc is obviously more complex.
Have a look here http://www.myassistancedog.com/interest.htm

http://www.topdogusa.org/about.html

Hi, do you clicker train at all? Just wondering as you may be able to "shape" her to pick up various objects.

This is the method I used when training for search square, in working trials, as we had to get the dog to pick up many different types of items, some of which didn't taste too good such as metal objects.

Is the problem the different texture of the items, do you think? or any of the problems Hali mentioned? if not can you identify it more exactly?



Wys
x

Ps Agree, no need to consider the other type of retrieve, you can do this without that

not sure if this will be any help to you, posiibly not because i trained my dog from a pup. although older dogs are trained for this.
one of my dogs is also my assist dog. she picks items up for me. whatever it is, from cloths to credit cards. if she hears it drop she gets it for me or if i ask her.
i have trained her myself, this has been possible purely through the bond she has with me and her willingness to please. every time she picked something up for me she would get a treat. the treat is no longer necessary although she often gets a treat anyway.
i just made it fun and she new she would get a treat and i would be pleased with her. noit that im never not pleased with her.
their is a charity that will recognise your pet that you have trained, as an assist dog once they have put it through a test of some sort. this doesnt help you with the training though. so maybe wont be of any help.all it means is that once the dog has qualified then it can wear a vest when out and be allowed in shops etc.
what you could with the dog is get her to hold random objects in her mouth and then give her a treat.dont ask her to pick it up just give it to her so she knows its okay, then give her a treat as soon as she holds it and make a fuss of her. then progress to dropping item and asking her to get it then give a treat. this worked with mine with credit cards.
she now knows anything i drop needs picking up.
this can also be quite ammusing though as if she wants my attention she will just bring me the phone even if i dont ask her. she is allowed in the local shops also.took her into a crystal shop the other day which i was nervous about but she was a star. she has changed my life and is an amazing dog.
hope that you find someone to help your mum and dog.

I was also going to suggest the shaping as Wys has said.

One of mine is my assistance dog but I've found a reluctance in her wanting to pick things up for me (due to textures of things) and have begun working on shaping it.

This isn't too bad for me as her main tasks are helping me up from the floor or from bended knee and she plays more of a role in my anxiety than my disability but I have found recently I've asked her to get things and she's just not having it!

Also - what do you offer as a reward for retrieving things? My dog suddenly decided she was more play driven than food driven (after 3 years of it being the other way around!) and is much more keen to do whatever I ask first time if I'm rewarding with a ball than if I reward with food. If she has a good retrieve of her ball then this is something you could use - at least around the house, although granted, not so much in public places!

Thanks for all your replies.

To answer the question, I think the problem is 1) Not wanting to pick up odd or awkward textures or shapes, and 2) Not really understanding what it is I want from her. She truly WANTS to please, she just isn't sure what I'm asking of her. I don't know how to be more clear.

I can't use a clicker with Moxie as she's very noise phobic and the clicker scares her. But I use the same method with a marker word and its worked so far. Shaping is a good idea, just not sure where to start. Reward her for looking at the object then touching the object then mouthing the object and so forth?

As for what I train with, treats primarily, but she is also very play motivated. I think she would love it if I could make it a game for her, retrieve the dropped object, then I throw the toy for her. Might be worth a shot. Its just getting her to understand that I want her to pick it up with her mouth and hand it back to me.

Thanks for all the links and tips. This gives me something to work with.

Yep that's pretty much it. Mark any interest in the object (use loads of different objects with different textures) then if she tries picking it up it's a bonus and definitely worth a jackpot!

You have to be very careful to reward the touching and picking up but not mouthing.

My TV remote is testament to that...

Good luck - you should be able to get her into the clicker by the way - if you try wrapping it in a towel or pillow case clicking and associating it with something really pleasurable.

The noise phobia is most likely something that you will have to work on in order to succeed with the assistance skills...

For instance - if a noise occurs is she going to shut down? If she shuts down she won't be able to help your mum.

Also, depending on what you want her to do, she may make a noise herself and if that frightens her it will put her off doing it.
If a clicker is enough to frighten her I'd be thinking about sorting that out before teaching her to pick up anything harder than a soft toy or something. If she drops it she's going to scare herself to death and isn't going to want to do it again.

It's something I had to get Takara over as I taught her to close kitchen cupboards and they bang as they have a closure thing on them after you've pushed them so far.

I would start off with soft objects and just marking and rewarding for any interest in them (don't say any cue word, just shape it) and working on the sound phobia at the same time before continuing to anything that could make noise if dropped.

Like anything else, the best help comes from an experienced person. Training assistance dogs is a very exacting process. We are raising our third assistance dog puppy, but I know little of training process after they start their formal training.

There are independent trainers that do such training. Perhaps check with Texas A&M and see if they have a program. If they do, thy may be able to help you find a graduate to help.