Hello, has anymore got any handy tips for how to encourage Cuillin to bring things back to me after she has charged off and picked up? she will race off after a ball hugely enthusiastically, pick it up, start running back to me, but then drop it almost instantly and keeps running back. Ive tried not giving her a treat and praise until she brings it back (she still doesnt seem to get the idea), got her to watch her wee brother Brodick who seems a natural retreiver and knew what to from the very first time he chased a ball and always brings the ball back to me, but she's still not doing. We play a lot of Find It games with dummies etc around the house and I supsect thats where I've gone wrong, I used to praise and treat her for finding things and now she just seems to want to Mark things and be praised only for that! When we are outside and I hide a dummy and send her to Find it its the same, she really loves searching for things and will do it for hours, she wags frantically the whole time she is looking, finds the dummy, then stands next to it looking at me very alert and expectantly with her ears up....if I call her to me she comes alone! She is as bright as a button and learns very quickly so I suspect its me who is doing it wrong here!! Thanks....
Re: not bringing back when fetching Hi Debsie, your best bet with Cuillin may be the clicker retrieve. It might help to have a look at this article: Clicker retrieve and possibly this one The retrieving process explained Sometimes young dogs will drop the dummy if they are panicked that you are leaving them, and very short retrieves can help give the dog the confidence to hold on. But I suspect that all you need to do is teach her to 'hold' onto things with the clicker. Pippa
Re: not bringing back when fetching Thanks Pippa. I've not used a Clicker before but this looks good, I'll nip to PAH and we'll get cracking this weekend. Planning to get them both some gundog training sessions once I've passed my driving test, but in the meantime they really both seem to really like doing this kind of thing around the house and out on walks. A half hour of Finding dummies around the house makes them as sleepy and sofa focused as an hour racing around in the hills I've discovered! Thanks again...
