Yay, lovely to see Casper playing like that I need to buy a USB cable for my GoPro - I've left mine at home, gagh! I have about fifty of them there, so it's really the last thing I need to be buying. Never mind! Can we share some suggestions of what to do with them? Here are a few I've thought of so far - all bloomin' obvious, so forgive me - Tug (I warned you about being obvious!) with a "give" cue to end the game - then restart game, or throw it as a reward for the give. - "Frisbee". It flies really well through the air. Either throw for the dog to catch, or to chase. - Retrieve and return to you. Reward is a game of tug or another throw. - Switching "ping pong" with two rings - Hunting in cover
The one that was on the video, and I have not managed, is to roll the rings! Charlie would seriously love that. I think you might need smooth grass though. I'm only using the rings as a reward. I'm not using them for hunt cues, or fetch, or anything. They are just a reward, a game, and anything goes. None of my trained cues are associated with the rings.
No that would be an error at this point. I play very gentle tug with Riley who has an extremely soft mouth and not a possessive bone in his body I haven't used the rings with Obi yet. Still working through lots of retrieve articles and reward toy is a tennis ball thrown.
I've been on a bit of a journey with tug. For a while, I thought tug was the reason Charlie was crunching things up, tennis balls and stuff. I sort of gave up on Charlie bringing back birds (ever! ) but a sneaking suspicion remained that Charlie crunching on stuff was because I played tug with him. It wasn't though - he crunched on stuff because he was too excited, too over aroused. Tug helped me with that. Playing tug was good for training Charlie to switch on, switch off. It helped him control himself. Now, Charlie never crunches anything. Since I gave up worrying, and faffing about, and just played tug with complete confidence (because I thought it no longer mattered either way) the only problem I have is that Charlie holds things so lightly they slip out of his mouth. And delivery problems are a thing of the past.
I spoke to Helen about Obi and tug because of his possessive nature and she was very clear that I would have to train it carefully starting with a hold (pretty much like training a hold for a retrieve) and that arousal was to be brought up very carefully. On that basis I've shelved it for now as I have too many other things on my list and I think it would take a long time to do properly without making things worse. If I ever get up to Helen (which I'm considering) I may rethink but for now it's a no to tug. I am playing two ball yo yo and going to get whipit back out as a result of her session at the positive gundogs conference which I liked very much.
Somewhat late to the party here but we have recently acquired puller rings for Harvey. And boy does he love them!!! You'd think he'd never had toys, retrieved, played tug or anything up until this point! We have to watch him carefully though - the 'ping pong' retrieving can be very tiring, especially on a sunny day. 4-5 minutes, in the shade, and he was exhausted - not that he would have stopped unless we did Oh, and he did manage to do a Charlie - get the ring over his head - and look a bit bemused about what to do next!
OK I give in I'm going to treat Charlie to one, so do we think the small or large would be best for him? Thanks xx
It's the only way to go And tell Charlie not to restrict himself to using his head. Harv found it amusing and perplexing in equal measure when he stepped into the ring with a front foot before trying to pick it up - every time he lifted his head up his foot came up too!
I did succumb in the end, my goodness they are big aren't they? Ripple hasn't seen them yet as I'm not quite sure how I will start with them, looking forward to the necklace effect .
My puller rings have not been a success . After Ripple's initial excitement all that now happens is I rush up and down madly chasing them and Ripple stands and chews grass watching me. He would probably like them as tug toys but I don't want to go down that route. Any ideas for getting his interest really going in them - otherwise they are a bit of an expensive mistake (as already pointed out by OH ).
