[nagdu] teaching retrieving without encouraging scavenging

Cindy Ray cindyray at gmail.com
Wed Jul 22 13:10:20 UTC 2015


I had a black lab that was an absolute gem at fetch. She was actually the only dog who would do it well for me. She would fetch anything I dropped if I pointed in the general direction. Once I told her to fetch and I wanted her to pick up my keys. She gave me a stylus. I then told her to fetch again and she came up with the keys. I loved it; I don't miss it now.
Cindy Lou
cindyray at gmail.com


-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Buddy Brannan via nagdu
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2015 6:38 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: Buddy Brannan
Subject: Re: [nagdu] teaching retrieving without encouraging scavenging

My opinion disagrees with your opinion. The stated reason is that it was too hard on the dogs and instructors, and, moreover, took a lot of time in the training cycle that, one supposes, could be better spent on things like traffic. There's probably some truth to this. Also, I suspect that not all dogs approach retrieve with the same sort of zeal or eagerness or even willingness, and it could be that some otherwise good guides were dropped due to their unwillingness or inability to fetch. Being decided that it's a nice to have and not a necessity, I expect it was dropped in part so that more dogs could be passed. 

At least one instructor told me that a lot of graduates didn't use fetch really either. I don't know if they did or didn't, but I've often thought it would be a handy thing. 

I think Fidelco was the last school to drop fetch, FWIW. 

--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: 814-860-3194 
Mobile: 814-431-0962
Email: buddy at brannan.name




> On Jul 21, 2015, at 7:25 PM, Vivianna via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> If it were my dog, i would not encourage her to pick up anything from the ground.
> most, if not all, schools quit teaching the fetch command long ago.  it’s my opinion that they did it to try and discourage scavenging and picking up unwanted items.
> 
> Vivianna
> 
>> On Jul 21, 2015, at 6:22 PM, Jenine Stanley via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> anielle, 
>> 
>> You might want him to just point at things on the ground instead of automatically retrieving them. 
>> 
>> I’m working on this too with Roger and shoes. It’s going very slowly but then again, that’s fine.
>> Jenine Stanley
>> jeninems at wowway.com
>> 
>> http://www.twitter.com/jeninems
>> 
>>> On Jul 21, 2015, at 6:34 PM, Danielle Cyclorama via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 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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