Charlie is such a complicated little character. He is quite happy to retrieve the dumbbell with his tail wagging and bring it back to me (dumping it at my feet).
I am now starting to backchain, and concentrate on the hold, to avoid the dumping of the dumbbell at my feet. However, the instant I present the dumbell to him to hold, his whole demeanour changes.
He becomes quite nervous, and will only lightly close his mouth on it. He looks away, scratches, anything to avoid holding it.
So, I've ordered a book called THE CLICKED RETRIEVER, through the Dogwise site.
Hopefully this book may have some techniquies to shape the hold, and avoid the stress Charlie is feeling.
Wish me luck
Yay, so we're almost all logged in as authors. Good luck with the routine
ReplyDeleteOf course we wish you luck! Charlie is so clever he'll get there soon enough. Hoping to watch the clicker training cd's again tomorrow so that I can pass to Jenny on Thursday. Thanks Gabe.
ReplyDeleteThere is no part of the a retrieve where the dog has to take the dumbell. Try putting it on the ground and seeing if that makes him happier - Rosie is exactly the same; I've just uploaded a dumbell video (Pep has improved on yesterday, but Rosie doesn't want to 'take it' at all). Try sticking with other items to take until you have a really solid happy behaviour before trying with the dumbell again - try a hat, toy, anything - make it happy and then down the track when you ask him with the dumbell (and I would get really good other behaviour for a good two weeks) - my bet is that he will be a different dog!
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