obedience training

[JessicaR]

My son is in 4-h obedience, at this time he is in the novice class. Next year he will have to move up to the graduate novice class. Which means he will have to do the drop on recall and dumbbell retrieve.

Skyler (shetland sheepdog) has no desire to retrieve at all! He is a soft dog, leash corrections will cause him to shut down, so the forced retrieve is out of the question for him. How can we teach him to retrieve?

Also how do teach the drop on recall?

[gsdmama]

I am teaching joey and elsa the same things as elsa next year will be competing in ScH1 and akc obedience trials. so she has to learn both also.

for the drop on recall. i have several length leads 15' 30' and 50'. i start with the 15' lead, i run through the recalls severals times to make sure her recall is good. then i call elsa to me and using both hand signal and vocal i will tell her to sit and i walk into her. i had to do this serval times. once she got the idea and was able to do it w/o me stepping in and using only hand or voice(not both) then i mixed it up recall into me, then recall and sit and recall into me. once she had that down i changed to the 30' lead and did the same thing all over again and the same with the 50' lead. you just got to mix it all up and use a lot of praise like good girl or good job and treats when she came into me. then once she got the sit on recall down i went to the down on recall and i mix up all the commands. recall to me, then recall sit, then recall down, recall into me. and so on. it is a lot of work and i am still working with her. Elsa's problem now is hesitation so back to working on a straight recall.

dumbbell elsa's problem is that i cannot get her to stop biting it. this is what i was taught. others may do it differently and i would ask the 4-h trainer to show you especially if your pup shuts down. first have your dog sit on the left side of you and right next to you, if you are right handed and opposite if you are left handed.

take the dumbbell in your r/hand and with your l/hand open the dogs mouth at the point on the jaw where they will open their mouth,tell them take and place the dumbbell in their mouth, then move your l/h under the chin you should feel like a "v" shape apply a bit of pressure and tell him good boy or girl. make them hold it for 2 seconds tell them to out and a lot of praise. it is a lot of work and i will try to post pics.

that is the basics of getting them to "hold" it in their mouth. i can throw the dumbbell and elsa will go and get it, but she doesn't carry it by the bar or she will naw on it on the way back. so i have that problem.

again i would talk to the trainer at 4-h since your pup shuts down.

Good luck

[grizzle]

Everything GSD said is correct but I will add a little something for a soft dog. You need to use two people at the start. you giving the commands and the other with the dog on leash. Have the second person lead the dog through the routine over and over until they start doing it on there own. Then you can change over to a long line. This works real good for a dog with a soft temperament.

[Shara]

My son is in 4-h obedience, at this time he is in the novice class. Next year he will have to move up to the graduate novice class. Which means he will have to do the drop on recall and dumbbell retrieve.

Skyler (shetland sheepdog) has no desire to retrieve at all! He is a soft dog, leash corrections will cause him to shut down, so the forced retrieve is out of the question for him. How can we teach him to retrieve?

Also how do teach the drop on recall?


On Skyler, have you done the pinch the ear method?

[JessicaR]

our trainer tried that once, it didn't work at all. He shook and clamped his mouth shut while whining. After that he avoided the trainer. I about cried.

[Labman]

I don't think an ear pinch is the way to go with a soft dog.

I have never had the problem, but though gsdmoma had some good ideas. One thing is to behave like the object is of high value to you.

[Shara]

My trainer rubbed my dogs gums (top) with the dumbell, Tigger is a very soft (or stubborn) border collie. Eventually he had to open his mouth, then we put the dumbell in for 1 second and pull it out and give him is ultimate treat, his frisbee/ball. Lots of praise and stuff...Tigger is not very food orientated...

With Shara, I did the whole pinch thing, and had hotdogs as a reward that I would slip in under the dumbell WHILE the dumbell was in her mouth. She is a very 'wussy' doxie, she always wants to roll over on her back and 'melt' down when trying to do anything. Or pee...seriously...we still have accidents with her...because shes so subbordinate.

The thing is to keep at it, and try to stick with it...regardless! Eventually the 'break' will come and it will click.


You can teach a play retrieve but it is not a guarantee retrieve like a force retrieve. This is where you take the dog, dumbell, clicker and treat (food or toy) and go to a controlled room and anytime the dog goes near the dumbell click and treat. Move the dumbell on the ground to try to get him to 'chase' and play with it. This is what I had to do with Tayla and ball training for flyball for her. She would never ever go near a ball. It takes a lot of time and paticents...but it does work.

Hope that all makes sense...sorry for rambling :rolleyes:

[JessicaR]

thanks for the tips!

[dobetaztic]

Marmite dogs love it spread some on the dumb bell bar so they will lick it and then be more interested in going for it firts drop right in front then move further away go with them as they go to the toy and praise and reward for firtst touching then for picking up then for holding then increase distance before taking from your dog.

as for the drop downs do at the side first while standing only reward for quick drops then when doing quickly start with a slow walk and tell to down stop and reward for quick responce then try doing a step away before reward and increase distance. once doing drop stay and able to move away and return then you can add the recall on the move.

for both just take slowly and if some thing goes wrong just go back a few steps till your dog is happy.