Brammie Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 Bram just doesnt like having stuff in his gob unless its soft and hes really hyper (nothing to do with his teeth they have been checked). He kind of knows "take it" from when we play tug but get him in a training situation and he couldnt care less about taking stuff on cue, ESPECIALLY if he knows theres treats around. Ive tried physically putting stuff in his gob and praising him for holding it (training class's idea) but he just doesnt get it. At the moment im trying to get him to touch the object with his mouth for a C/T but he just kicks it around the room until hes so frustrated he sits infront of me and barks Its no big deal or anything, just a bit of fun i would like to teach him. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophie Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 We're trying to get Sophie to stick things in her mouth at the moment. She doesn't really put anything in her mouth, except food. At classes working with retreive, we started nose touch on a dumbell, then delaying the click until she opened her mouth. We now have her opening her mouth over the dumbell, then backing away rapidly so she can shut her mouth again We basically started with the dumbell (actually a puppy king bone for Sophie, since it's a softer texture) in my hand, then placing it immediately in front of her and asking for a touch. Once she did that reliably (coming to it from a distance to touch, rather than doing the positioning for her), we delayed clicking and eventually got a lip curl, which moved on to an open mouth. Not sure how to get her to close her mouth though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traceymcl Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 Hi Brammie, I spent 2 years teaching Cal how to retrieve (on and off - it was such a long slog that I kept on giving up). Cal doesn't like holding things in his mouth and has zero interest in chasing toys. Eventually, what made the difference with him was that I started doing loads of training with him and Katie. They now do tricks for all of their food and they love it. Suddenly, Cal could see the point in training - up until then, he'd do things twice at the most which made it difficult to teach him new things. Once he had some enthusiasm for learning, I would throw his toy. I started clicking for him looking at the toy, then for moving towards it, then for bending his head towards it, then for touching it with his nose, then for putting his mouth round it, then for lifting it and dropping it immediately. Eventually, I had a dog who would chuck the toy around. Then I clicked him for any chucks that came close to me until I got him to deliberately throw the toy to my feet. We just gradually kept fine tuning until he would bring me the toy without dropping it. He still chews whatever is in his mouth - he'll never make a top knotch retriever but he and I can now enjoy playing with toys. Cal does now quite like playing with toys and because he isn't madly focussed on them, he can do really impressive tricks like drop into a down on command when in mid chase after a ball. He normally runs out pretty slowly but his tail starts wagging when he reaches the toy and he gallops back to me at top speed (the rewarding thing for Cal is getting back to me with the toy). He's so lazy that it's a good way to get him to exercise. Tracey xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts