I've long known that Charlie is completely deaf when looking for his dummy (or indeed anything thrown). I talked to my trainer about this and her take on it was that Charlie can't do much at all if he thinks there is a dummy around, so I needed to start by proofing all my cues against dummies. Only when he could follow his cues when he was in the same room as a dummy could I even think about him listening to a cue when he was actually searching for a dummy. This all sounded very sensible to me, and I started a programme to do just that. The thing is, I've found that it's not just dummies. He is deaf when he is searching for anything, food or balls (and he has no trouble following his cues in the presence of food, he does that all the time). It's like I just can't interrupt a "find it" cue. Once I say "find it" he goes deaf. Even if all he is looking for is a boring dry biscuit. How to come up with an exercise (positive only) that will tackle this? It is not a general problem of him responding to me in the presence of distractions - I can put a plate of chicken on the floor and he will happily ignore it while we go about our work. It's only once I have told him "find it" that I have the problem - his nose goes down (or up) and he goes deaf.
How do you use your 'find it' cue? To give you an example, would you use "find it' when you send him out for a blind retrieve?
So, we are not "normal" at the minute, in that we are on rest and no off lead exercise, but I'm trying to do what I can in games and activities that is useful for the future. Where I was before the rest was this: I had a really good hunt whistle established - so if I sent him out to something he couldn't see, and blew my hunt whistle he would start searching. I had done this in limited circumstances, mainly hiding a pile of treats, sending him out on my blind retrieve cue, and blowing my whistle when he reached the treats. I had also used my find it cue and my hunt whistle in sort of "defined areas" - for example, there is a place where I go that is mainly short grass but several areas of rough stuff (probably about 6 - 8 m in diameter) and I'd hide thing in these areas and then encourage him to "find it" - this got him used to searching in a limited area. I was at the point of trying to put these things together, but was still trying to make sure I had a really good blind retrieve cue by lining and casting to placeboards. I hadn't really put the two things together much. I also had some sort of mistakes before I used my placeboards to try to solidify my blind retrieve cue - if I sent him out on a blind retrieve and he couldn't find the dummy, he'd search the whole blimmin' field for it (deaf, of course). My trainer told me to go and pick up the dummy in these circumstances but unless I was careful he'd beat me to it. So I stopped doing that. Now, I'm just using my "find it" cue in the garden, I have a very small garden, so it's sort of like my "find it" in a defined area. I think - and I'd appreciate views - that I need a "gone away" cue. A cue that says "nothing to find after all" that ends his search? So if I say "find it" two or three times, and he does, I can then say "finish, all done" to let him know there is nothing left to find and that works. I've never tried doing that before he has found the first thing though.
When Harley goes deaf because she can't find whatever, I say 'I've got it, let's go' show her a treat or another ball and this seems to work.
I would also train for an interrupter of some kind. Maybe a squeaky toy, something that is linked to rewards?
Hmmm I do have an interrupter, it's my starting work cue "ready" - it is a strong cue. I haven't tried it (although have tried equally strong cues). I could hold up a dummy, but that's just a bribe I think. Should I try it when there is nothing to find, perhaps so if he ignores it he is not rewarded if he carries on searching. Maybe I need a helper to obviously remove what it is he is searching for if he ignores it...
I've seen this in quite a few working labs. It is not uncommon to see them so hunt-obsessed that once they are sent for something they go deaf and will not return until they have found something. Tarka was a bit like this as a youngster. If she was hunting and the nose was on, the ears were most definitely off. I ended up teaching her to pay attention to me when hunting by teaching her to quarter like a spaniel. This was kind of enforced on us as I was looking for something to do with her after her shoulder injury and subsequent rest/prolonged lead only exercise. I left dummies or balls in long grass, had her on the lead and walked in a quartering pattern, teaching her to turn on cue - we already had a good stop cue. Doing it on the lead and then a flexi lead meant if she ignored a cue she could not self-reward by eventually finding the dummy or ball as I knew where it was and she didn't! And I have a "no" cue which I use now for hunting at a distance from me. "No" in my hands is not a negative thing really, it just means "stop what you're doing and look at me for re-direction". Ultimately I found that teaching her to quarter taught her that it was more rewarding to listen to me as I knew where things were.
That's a good tip, thanks Lochan, I might try something along those lines. Charlie is not hunt obsessed on his own - he won't start hunting unless he is prompted to do so by a cue or someone throwing something but once he starts it's just so difficult to get him to stop. Ever since I was unable to stop him swimming out to sea after a thrown pebble, and I feared he might make France, I've been a bit nervous about this failure to be able to interrupt him searching. And it does seem something I can work while he is on rest.
