Max (almost 8 months), found a dead rat whilst off lead today. We've always trained him to drop anything we don't want him to have and reward with a treat. Would he drop the rat? Would he heck!! He just ran round and round, dropped it, picked it up, flung it around etc. After 10/15 minutes of various attempts to even get near him I finally managed to get close enough to show him my very high value treat (that I'd been using to improve recall(!!) and while he sniffed at it I just managed to grab his collar while the rat was on the ground. Such stress! So what can I do to improve the drop command? Or is this a situation that will just happen occasionally and I'll just have to live with it?
Re: Max found a dead rat today! Lots and lots of high value treats on offer and masses of praise when he drops at the command . Although you had to grab his collar in order to get him away from the rat , still treat and praise him . Practice it at home in a more controlled environment with toys , with enough practice he will improve , but well done on getting him away from the rat
Re: Max found a dead rat today! Unless you train your dog to give you very high value items (in his eyes) he won't. So if your dog sees something as food, for example, unless you have trained your dog to give you something he sees as food, he is unlikely to hand it over. It really does depend on the value the dog attaches to the item, in my view. My dog would (and has) handed me a dead rat (it was dark, and I'm not sure I would have taken it and walked back up the field carrying it had I realised what it was!) but I do struggle with other things. For difficult circumstances, I have a magic word - used in anger only twice (for a dead seagull, and a rotting large fish) and it's worked both times: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/your-labradors-magic-word/
Re: Max found a dead rat today! Thank you Kate, to be honest all my positivity, praise and rewards etc went out of the window! I was so relieved that I'd got him away from it I just put on his lead and walked him back to the car with very little interaction . If there's a next time (and I'm sure there will be) I'll try and stay a bit calmer. I had read about a magic word Julie, but I hadn't introduced it. I'll add that into his training this week.
Re: Max found a dead rat today! Tatze has handed me a deal rat - swapped for a piece of stinky tripe which stunk more than the rat! I'm glad she did as it had been poisoned. I keep one, wrapped in cling film in my bum bag, for just such eventualities
Re: Max found a dead rat today! I still struggle with getting Molly to give up dead creatures. For her no food reward is good enough (and I've tried a huge range of real meat and treats). However she too found a dead rat this week, at the beach - she wasn't eating it but throwing it around and rolling on it. I discovered that for her a plastic bottle containing some small stones trumps a dead rat! I want to stress that this wasn't an aversive but a toy; Molly loves to have these thrown for her and gets wildly excited. Our beach is strewn with flotsam and every day she brings me a bottle to fill and throw. I think it's a matter of finding out what your dog really values and using that as a swap for undesirable things. Good luck!
Re: Max found a dead rat today! Hattie has a real knack for finding Deer heads and she found yet another one this week, I ran and hid she dropped it to come and find me I popped her on lead to walk past the Deer head! I have got her to drop a rotten one for a jackpot treat but this was a fresh one so no chance : x But Rats you do need to be careful because they may have been poisoned. x
Re: Max found a dead rat today! Thank you all for your support and ideas. I hadn't thought of carrying a tripe stick. Max absolutely loves them! He's managed to redeem himself by being really good at our training class this afternoon, so we're friends again
Re: Max found a dead rat today! I have a treat bag which has a another separate section which I keep quarters of rather nice pork pie for similar emergencies...I only have to say "pork pie" or "fish chewy" and Caspers eyes widen with excitement! ;D Fish chewys are the fish chew sticks from Milles Wolfheart, I given them as a special treat at home.
Re: Max found a dead rat today! Yes, I agree, I've discovered the worth of high value treats relatively recently, but if only I were organised to carry around fresh chicken with me at all times! (ie the most highly valued treat in Monty's eye's- he would 'drop' anything for roast chicken. ) Monty found a huge dead rat a few weeks ago - will post a photo at some point - but fortunately was on a lead and just got him away from it in time. he was so proud though...
