[nagdu] Fetching

[Tracy Carcione]

My Amba was good at what Julie J calls "find it".  If I dropped something,
I could ask Amba "Where is it?" in an excited way, and point around a
little, and she'd touch the object with her nose, most of the time.  Echo
wouldn't.  I think Ben would probably start sniffing around for something
he could eat, but maybe I'll try it with him, anyway.  Motivating him can
sometimes be a problem.  If he's not interested, he's not interested.
Tracy

> 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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