I am frightened to even talk about this incase I jinx it. I have been working hard and for a long time on 'find it' which is motivating for Charlie, never thought I would EVER be able to use that word We have been only training this in our garden which is so successful as he will leave whatever he is doing to hunt out the treats whenever I call 'find it' My youngest Son, Thomas (almost 18 years) took Charlie out for a walk on Wednesday and this afternoon so I asked him to give it a go with 'find it' to which Charlie responded, bombed back to hunt out the treats Anyone who knows Charlie on this forum knows that it has been a major struggle to find anything to motivate him, balls, toys, food, his family. So could this be the breakthrough we have been waiting over 6 years for? Now, I don't want to blow this so any advice on how not too or to slowly advance with it would be greatly appreciated. I feel like xxx
that's great! "Find it" was hugely successful for us in improving engagement on walks too, though in much less challenging circs. I guess scenty dogs like to be rewarded for sniffing! Do you do set-ups, where you put treats somewhere ahead of time (e.g. the sausage tree) and then surprise Charlie on a walk with your amazing treat-finding skills?
What a legend! Well done Charlie - well done Helen. I play "find it" with Coco when I'm out - in an effort to keep him engaged, and it IS working. It feels so good when you suddenly realise you've made some progress - and yes, you have made amazing progress with Charlie.
When Snowie ate kibble, I mostly fed him this way: placed the kibble around the kitchen and played Find It. Good way to mentally tire and calm a puppy. I use this game now to calm him down at night when he’s fidgety and won’t go to sleep. I take his ball, make him wait in another room, hide the ball, and then call him to Find It. A few goes at this followed by a few bounces of the ball against the door, where Snowie catches the rebounding ball, and he’s happy to settle down on his bed.
Great news! I hope this is a breakthrough for you! Reading your stories about Charlie has helped me so much, and made me feel less alone with my runaway rescue boy. Here's what I've found works with Lucky, so I hope this gives you some ideas. I play this three different ways, two use cues and one is silent. 1. I hide food in trees or on the ground, bend over and say "Oh WOW, what's this?" and he comes running. I point a little bit away from the food now he understands the cue, which means he has to do some hunting. 2. Ask him to stay, hide food, and release him to search for it - 'find it'. The further away from him I hide the food the more excited he gets. If you want to build excitement, I would ask someone to hold Charlie, or tie him to something if it's safe, while you hide the treats, and not ask for a sit or stay. If someone holds him, they can try to rile him up and get him pulling forward a bit while they hold him. 3. Without saying anything, I walk off the path, bend down and hide the food. To start with, I would stay bent down looking at the food, eventually Lucky got curious and came to see what I was up to - it took a bit of patience to begin with - but I wouldn't say anything and would just wait for him to come and investigate. Now, he's usually quick at noticing I've left the path and comes to see if I've found something. For all of these, I vary how many treats I hide and how close together they are. Sometimes it's just one treat, sometimes a whole handful in one place, or several treats hidden in different places. I think this helps because it's always a surprise - and he loves it when he finds a whole handful of treats!
@lucky_dog Thank you for your great ideas and comments, so helpful for us to move forward with Tapping into that Pointer nose has to be the key, but it takes a lot of very slow building up to get any engagement from him I thought about getting one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06W5JN8LF/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1XTXJIK65V8A5&psc=1 to fill with something really tasty as a jackpot 'find it', what do you think? x
We love the lotus ball for Bramble, she gets so excited by them! https://www.traininglines.co.uk/tre...based-dog-toy-great-for-agility-training.html
Harley loves her lotus ball too......I really gave to stop buying her toys......her toy box is spilling over
Coco & me did a new walk this afternoon, I really struggled to keep him engaged. The only thing that really got his attention was "find it" - it's a powerful game.
It MUST be if Charlie can engage x David is in the US for 10 days so Thomas has been helping me with Charlie walks and he has played "find it" every day which Thomas also enjoys and he confirms it's still WORKING. I'm so over the moon I can't find words to describe it x
I was going to suggest the lotus ball, too I've been playing hunting with my lot recently; I have a corner of a field that has very long grass, so I throw a few balls, dummies and things into it over their heads while they sit facing me then blow my hunt whistle. They love it. Shadow, who isn't the world's most confident hunter, is now finding the game itself super rewarding. After delivering an article, he sits quivering waiting for me to blow the whistle again! I'd imagine for the pointer pants, it'd be hugely exciting!
I have a couple of PawsPockets (like lotus balls) and Coco loves them (in the house) - he pesters for them - best way to use them outside ?
I would find a small corner of longish grass, put him in a sit/stay while you go hide it in there, then release him to go find it. If you have more than one, you can hide them all
Find it has been my savour as well. Duggan is a very energetic 18 month old who just underwent TPLO surgery. He’s severely restricted in activity and was getting very frustrated so I needed something. He’s always been nosey so I think Snowbunny recommended “find it” . He’s a natural. Took straight to it. After a week we are already at finding non food items in other rooms of the house. Can’t wait till his restriction is lifted so I can try to drag a scent across the garden for him to find.
