Me again! I told you you'd be getting bored of me! I'm not sure if it's something that's common to all new puppies, but Willow is somewhat rubbish at following anything that's thrown. For example, a ball. If I roll it away from her, she'll chase it, but if I throw it over her head, she just assumes it's magically disappeared and mooches off to do something else. This isn't an issue - I guess she'll work it out in her own time - but I have a similar thing with treats. I've been trying to do some clicker charging with her, but she never sees the treat being thrown, even if it lands at her feet, so I feel she's not getting the association between clicker and treat. Any advice? She's never far from me, a couple of feet at the very most. Do you think it would help to click and feed from my hand, or would that mess up the association?
Re: Can't follow anything thrown? Hollie is the same but getting better everyday We hand fed the kibble when loading the clicker and she quickly associated the sound with good stuff
Re: Can't follow anything thrown? Harley didn't get things being thrown until she was about 4 months old. Prior to this, if we didn't roll it towards her or throw at a very low level, she wouldn't go and get it. At 14 months there is no stopping her retrieving anything . It will take time for them to understand. As for rewarding, I don't use a clicker, but would get Harley to come to me for a treat and give it directly to her to have. If I threw it, she probably would of ignored it.
Re: Can't follow anything thrown? Dont worry, thats normal. Bouncer wouldnt follow anything thrown at first, now he chases most things & sometimes brings it back, but that is rare.
Re: Can't follow anything thrown? Definitely deliver the treat from your hand. There is no advantage to throwing it at this stage. Feeding from the hand is much better so you can be sure she's got the treat in time Later on you can use thrown treats to position her in between repetitions of things you're training (eg to move her away a bit so she can re-approach to have another try at picking up the dummy or whatever) or you can toss treats to her mouth if she's a good catcher. But hand delivery is perfectly fine and is what I use 99.99% of the time. I'm curious though - why did you think you needed to throw the treats for charging the clicker? Incidentally you don't need to spend days charging the clicker. A few rounds of 10 x clicks & treats will do it, over the course of a day or morning. Then get stuck into using it to train something simple like 'touch my hand' or 'sit'. Being able to follow a moving object with your eyes and head is a skill that might take time to develop. Just like a human baby takes time to learn to do the simplest things, puppies need time for their brains and eyes and muscles to develop the abilities they need too
Re: Can't follow anything thrown? It takes a little bit. Sara is 11 wks now and I can throw her favourite toy about 20 ft. She loves bringing it back so we can wrestle with it. She always wins. If I want her to drop it I just have to exchange it for my arm. She's good for about 4 or 5 throws (so's my arm )
Re: Can't follow anything thrown? [quote author=Oberon link=topic=8152.msg115208#msg115208 date=1412624976] I'm curious though - why did you think you needed to throw the treats for charging the clicker? [/quote] I had read or seen a video that you should throw rather than delivering from your hand. So much conflicting information out there, it becomes very confusing!! I've done two proper sessions charging and was planning a third this morning, following up with some light training for "no mugging" and a sit for please.
Re: Can't follow anything thrown? Yes, it can be hard to work out what is the right way sometimes with so much info available. I understand perfectly!
