| 2425 |
|
The Retrieve: No Force Breaking Or Punishment Required
By Sandra L. Hoesel © February 2008
For starters this is a subject that continues to incense me to this day!
Why? Because thoughtless people claim that force breaking a dog is the only way to guarantee the dog’s successful, consistent completion of retrieves. That is crazy…nuts…psycho even…
I have NEVER had a dog fail to complete a retrieve in the obedience ring or in the field be it training or trial.
I have stood there in the pouring rain or driving snow or heat of summer waiting for a dog to find a downed bird that may have landed in heavy cover or they didn’t mark well. However the dog always came back with the bird…pen raised or wild.
What is force breaking you ask? The force breaking I’m referring to here is the horrible practice of hurting dogs so badly that they have scars on their toes for the rest of their lives in some cases. I know of a very talented GSP that refused to hunt after he came home from this experience and this dog was a hunting maniac. I could go on and on about the very specific cruel methods of “training” dogs which I don’t condone however I would rather take this article in a much more positive direction.
Retrieving: All dogs can retrieve unless they are physically ill equipped to do so. Watch puppies in a litter playing together when toys are present, they pick up, carry and run off with toys and you have just witnessed the dog retrieving.
I firmly believe that all basic foundational behaviors can be play trained to very young puppies from the ages of 6 weeks on, even younger in some cases. Of course most of you will not have a puppy home until they are between the ages of 7 ½ to 8 weeks. (If you did not breed that dog you better not have it home prior to that age). Play training is very different from rigorous Koehler method obedience training. Simply put it is as the name suggests – you PLAY with your dog. (However having a plan, being consistent and knowing when to end it are crucial to the success of this method)
What happens when you play with your puppy or dog? Learn to truly watch your dog, his body posture, ears, eyes, expression, tail set, position of his legs, his nostrils, the hair on his back or neck. All these are some of the physical indicators of how your dog is thinking and feeling.
What gets him most excited, your voice, a toy, some food? Something motivates that dog you just have to find it. Older dogs have motivators, again you have to find them. Some things are too exciting, for example my Border Terrier would practically roll his eyes into the back of his head when food was brought out. I could not train or play with a dog that was not focused so I used something more terrier oriented.
When he was older and I was working with him at the higher levels of competitive obedience, I would use an old tube sock as a release by grabbing it from the back of my jeans and throwing it quickly down to him.
He would dive on it, hold it down with his front paws and proceed to rip it into shreds. What fun!!! In return for that I had focused attention whenever I asked for it, resulting in several high in trial obedience awards.
My Golden Retriever, Stormy could retrieve a quarter off a flat tile floor and would gladly do it, no force, no hurting him required. Of course I didn’t start teaching him the retrieve that way.
I find using a toy that the dog really likes works well. After all once you teach the commands you can transfer the behaviors to other things.
With young puppies I get them to whoa (stop and stand) for a second then throw the toy and encourage them to come back to me with it.
You would be amazed how easy this is. Even my Chinese Cresteds retrieve on command because of these games when they are puppies.
Encourage the dog to “take it” to open his mouth. Let the dog hold it a few seconds and then use the “give” command.
Make a huge fuss over him, even throwing the toy sometimes for him to retrieve. Don’t worry about it if he drops it or doesn’t come right back to you. Capitalize on the positive things he does.
You will know the dog has put it all together when you see him actually thinking about holding the object AND taking every step towards you.
The ever inventive Ari was such a great retriever when she came to live with me that she would bust birds and then proceed to run around the field gleefully throwing and catching the bird as she ran. I would just walk back to the truck shaking my head (and thinking about the difficulties of disciplining a dog when you are laughing at their unique sense of humor)
We got that turned around pretty quickly and to this day she is still one of the best, most reliable dogs I have ever trialed or hunted over.
It all starts with you. You got a “hunting dog”. They are equipped with natural behaviors dictated by hundreds of years of selective breeding.
However we have to help them be all they can be. I find that just a few seconds of play training the dogs several times a day produces consistent results. Do not tell me you don’t have time. While you are watching the evening news is a great time to do “take it, hold it, give”.
While you are folding the laundry is a great time to do “take it, hold it, give”. While waiting for the microwave to ding “take it, hold it, give”.
You get the idea. Every trainer/owner gets the dog they deserve...
|
