[nagdu] teaching retrieving without encouraging scavenging

[Julie J.]

I never taught Monty a formal retrieve, but he will put his nose on things I 
have dropped...or at least he used to.  I haven't used this skill in a good 
while. He's a natural retriever so a lot of training wasn't really 
necessary.

First I taught him very strong food Zen when he was younger.  This is what 
we were just talking about for Tracy's situation.  It's fancy food refusal. 
Monty was crazy when he was a puppy.  He jumped on the counters, stole food 
and was generally a menace, a very sweet menace, but still a menace.

Only after food refusal was well engrained, I started encouraging him to go 
to things I had dropped.  I started with very obvious things that didn't 
belong.  I didn't do this in any sort of formal way.  I think I used hair 
scrunchies.  It was different and he would naturally go to it to 
investigate.  I praised the interest enthusiastically. I tried different 
objects in different rooms and eventually worked up to dropping things 
before he entered the room. I never used food until a lot later in this 
process.

I have accidentally dropped Advil tablets and he found them for me.  I 
didn't even know that it had been dropped, but he went to something like he 
always had.  when I checked it out, there it was.  Scary, but proud of the 
boy.

Monty will eat food dropped on the floor at home.  It's my house rule that 
he can have it.  If I need to I can tell him to "leave it" and he will back 
off.  He does not scavenge or lunge for food when out in public.  He will 
eat food if it drops on his head though.  A waitress dropped a roll on his 
head, which he ate before it hit the floor.  He also does not have any 
interest in eating non food items.

I'm very comfortable with these behaviors.  It works for me.  It does not 
cause confusion or problems for him or me.  He understands the difference 
between home and away.   As always your mileage may vary, proceed at your 
own risk, decide for yourself and all that.

As an aside...Jetta  has different rules.  She's quite a lot younger, newer 
and is a different dog with different needs.

Julie
Courage to Dare: A Blind Woman's Quest to Train her Own Guide Dog is now 
available! Get the book here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QXZSMOC
-----Original Message----- 
From: Danielle Cyclorama via nagdu
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2015 5:34 PM
To: the National Association of Guide Dog Users NAGDU Mailing List
Cc: Danielle Cyclorama
Subject: [nagdu] teaching retrieving without encouraging scavenging



Hi all,
I'm thinking about teaching my dog to retrieve objects I drop. He loves to 
retrieve and this seems like a useful skill. He already knows how to 
retrieve a few items by name, but I'm hoping to broaden this skill to 
include any object on the ground. However, I don't want him to think it is 
OK to pick up food I drop. I'm thinking I may teach him to retrieve on 
command rather then automatically if something falls. Any suggestions would 
be appreciated.

Danielle, Thai, and Bonnie (GDF puppy in training)
Sent from my iPhone
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