Category: Performance Events ¤
  Author: Sue Ailsby ¤
   Title: Teaching the Dog to Retrieve ¤

Let's go through the retrieve step by step:

TEACHING THE DOG TO RETRIEVE
	MAKE THE CONTRACT
		What the dog wants - hot dog?  Cheerios? 
		What you want - first, touch the dumbell, then touch it
harder, then open mouth on it, then pick it up, then bring it back
(simplified verson ;-), there are LOTS more steps)
	GET THE BEHAVIOUR
		Wait for it - try just holding the dumbell with one hand,
c/t if the dog touches it.
		Shape it - hold the dumbell with one hand, c/t if the dog
glances at it, or moves slightly closer to it.  Work this up until he's
touching it rather hard.  I usually do the dumbell-in-hand work in the
morning, and in the evening I put the dumbell on the floor and shape the
dog to go and touch it there.  By the time you have the dog actively
bumping the db, many of them will simply open their mouths on it.  
		Lure it - my PWD pup didn't think of opening her mouth, so
after several days of trying, wherein she bumped it VERY hard, pulled it
down with her chin, pushed it up with her nose, batted it sideways, etc, I
finally put a bit of squeez cheez on the bar, and clicked when her tongue
touched the bar.  An electrifying moment!  She stopped dead, looked up at
me with her tongue still stuck on the bar, then joyfully grabbed the
dumbell out of my hand.  That was all the hint she needed.
	CLICK WHAT YOU WANTED
		Click and treat at each stage.  Don't worry that you're
clicking for the next step, which might be, for instance, actually
cradling the dumbell in the mouth on their own for a second, and the click
causes the dog to spit out the db - the click is SUPPOSED to end the
behaviour!
	DELIVER THE TREAT
		After the click.  Let the click take the photo of the good
behaviour, then give the treat. 
	WAIT FOR HIM TO OFFER IT TO YOU
		When you can hold the db out, or put it on the ground, and
the dog runs over and deliberately picks it up, knowing full well that
he's about to earn a click, you can start to forget about the ear pinch,
OK ;-) ?		
	ADD THE CUE
		When you've got the dog offering you the retrieve, you can
start predicting it by softly saying "Take it" when he's picking it up.
It's not a command here, it's a prediction:  "I bet he's going to... 'take
it'!"  When he's heard the words "take it" a hundred times, he'll ONLY
have heard them when he's actually performing the task, NEVER when he's
not going.  That way you don't fall into the "Take it! Take it!  Take it!"
rut.  Eventually, when he's heard it and done it many, many, many times,
you can try to suggest it when he's not already thinking of it.  If he
immediately starts looking for a dumbell, and brings it back very proud of
himself, you were right!  If he fails to retrieve, the failure is yours -
you asked him too soon.  Practise predicting some more.
	ASK FOR MORE
		More retrieves, more objects, more distance, more energy
- with tougher distractions ("but there's a DOG out there!").
		Ask for less whenever you change anything about what he
knows - what to retrieve, when to retrieve, how far to come.  Ask for less
and teach him how to do it all over again. Each new thing he learns will
be faster.

Sue eh?

-=-
>> This is the click-l mailing list!.
>> Subscriptions:  email info@txk9cop.metronet.com for full help.
>> To unsubscribe send a message to listserv@txk9cop.metronet.com
>>	-- text: unsubscribe click-l		(click-d if on digest)