Hi everyone,just looking for some suggestions as I can't find anything on the main site.... I had Dexter returning a very lightweight canvas dummy to hand.He was reliably picking it up in the middle no problems.I changed about 10 days ago to the 2" hexabumper,it's obviously a different texture and heavier and Dexter wasn't as confident with it.At first he kept mostly dropping it on his way back to me,he would pick it up again though.Also we had a bit of licking of the dummy going on...I though he was licking at the slobber on it but I think it's holds the flavour of his reward on it and that's what he was licking at.....that seems to have lessened.he was also returning it in a 'cigar' fashion so we went right back to the beginning with me doing c&t for putting his mouth round it in the middle while I held it......this worked well and he seemed to realise that he had to grip harder with his mouth to keep hold of it if you know what I mean.So we went back into our retreive corridor in the house and we are doing great but unless it lands horizontal to his approach,he Picks it up like a cigar :-\ A professional hold isn't the most important thing in the world to me but it seems a shame when I am making progress and I know he could do it with the previous canvas dummy that I don't persevere and keep it looking neat. What should I do when he returns holding it like a cigar?iI feel like if I don't give him a reward he's going to get fed up coming back to me. :-[ Our retreive training has never been great but he is trying really hard,I can see him trying to get it right,if he's got it like a cigar..it's harder to carry and I can see him trying to keep a grip on it so it doesn't drop, poor lad. What I've been doing is taking it from him ,then giving him it straight back ,he puts his mouth straight on the middle so I can c&t.....but we aren't making any progress......he's still smoking that cigar! Do you think he just needs practice to learn the different feel of the hexabumper? The easy answer I suppose is if retrieving is just for fun,go back to the canvas dummy as that works.... Seems a shame though ,the hexabumper looks so much better than our tatty pet shop canvas one. Thanks folks,it's not life or death but I'd be interested to see what you think ......
Re: Dummy hold A few weeks ago I brought Harley a hexabumper. She had only used the canvas one before. She retrieved the hexabumper a few times but then decided to do a runner with it and chewed it and broke it! As soon as we went back to the canvas dummy, we had brilliant retrieves again. I going to slowly introduce the hexabumper alongside the canvas one....I.e. One throw of the canvas, one throw of the hexabumper and see if this helps! (Of course I have to wait a few weeks til she is better!)
Re: Dummy hold Riley is an occasional cigar smoker too.......so bad for the health ! I changed to a rugby ball shaped dummy which would slip out if he tried to pick at the ends as I was getting nowhere on a clicker programme. I too felt like I was never rewarding and couldn't work out how to fix it. If you want to persevere you can try and put something on the ends that would discourage him to pick, there were some suggestions on my thread when I did some clicker retrieve work with Riley.... http://www.thelabradorforum.com/index.php?topic=6412.0 but to be honest I just stopped worrying about it. As long as he doesn't drop it I don't mind
Re: Dummy hold I'll have a go at an answer.... I think (if you care about a hold in the middle) that you shouldn't move on until you've nailed it. So you do the right thing in going back to the pick up, and stop doing retrieves in your corridor involving distance. You are shaping, and you are shaping the pick up. So be very close to Dex (whatever way you are using, either from the floor or from your hands - but you shouldn't be try to shape this with the dummy at a distance, work on this one thing alone) and if he gets it wrong, no C&T and he has to try again. If he is walking off with the dummy at this point, then it is time consuming unless you use a no reward marker to prompt him to try again (which I used to do, but no more - that's banned now). If you really care about this, it's best to sort it before you move on. If you only care a little bit, you could move on and use a dummy shaped to encourage a hold in the middle (eg a dumbbell).
Re: Dummy hold I don't care that much anymore where the dog holds the dummy. Alice picks up game perfectly but will occasionally hold a dummy like a cigar. I sometimes wonder if she does it for her own amusement just to bring a bit of variety into retrieving dummies.
Re: Dummy hold Thanks everybody ,sorry I was slow getting back ,bet you are all rolling your eyes at me saying ,Blimey a month ago she couldn't get a dummy back...now she wants it perfectly ;D ;D ;D Julie,you reminded me,I've got a little dumb bell I bought ages ago,I'll try with that today.... Harley a hexabumper takes some chewing....let's not give Dexter any ideas! ;D At the end of the day it doesn't really matter,we are only doing it for fun so I'll see how we do x
