[nagdu] Fetching
Julie J
julielj at neb.rr.com
Wed Mar 23 13:56:28 UTC 2011
There are a million different ways of teaching a dog to retrieve. Which one
you pick will depend on what training philosophy you follow and what exactly
you want from your dog. I'd suggest Googgling a bit to get a basic
understanding of your options. There are thousands of free web pages,
videos and books available on the topic.
Personally I have only taught a play retrieve to Monty. He gets his toy,
brings it back and gives it to me on cue. I taught this through play and
refusal to play when he decided to not bring the toy back or relinquish the
toy. He is highly motivated by playing the fetch game, so the expectation
of another toss is enough to motivate him to follow my rules.
I also use a very informal "find it" which utilizes his natural curiosity to
find objects that I've dropped. In all honesty this isn't really a trained
behavior at all. If I drop something I can call him to where I am. If he
doesn't immediately go to investigate the out of place item, I can draw his
attention to the general area and he will go to the object I've dropped. I
can then pick up the object and praise him for finding it. This method
works well enough for my purposes that I haven't taught anything more
formal.
A working retrieve is actually a chain of many behaviors, going away toward
the object, identifying the correct item, picking up the item, holding the
item, returning to the handler, and finally giving the item to the handler.
>From what I've read most trainers suggest back chaining this sequence, which
means to teach the last behavior first, working your way backwards through
the chain of behaviors.
HTH
Julie
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