I've been doing some searching to try to get the info that Heidrun's been explaining regarding building a retrieving addiction. I've waded quite deep but I can't find it in a potted history. Am I being thick? Have I missed it? We're struggling with the following: Won't reliably come back when she comes back (5 out of 10) she drops at feet after two ball / dummy throws she stops wanting to come back at all. However, the kids have a new game where they throw her toys into incredibly thick bushes and she jumps in and finds them. it takes her a while and you can really hear her thinking. she'll play that for ages. sooooo, how do we get her mad keen to do this? i'm thinking we need to do desperate to retrieve first and then worry about the delivery to hand. thanks for any help you can offer.
Re: Retrieving Addiction Hi hd, sorry I missed your post, have only just seen it. There is no one sure fire recipe to get a retrieving addiction going, it all depends on the dog. Three of my dogs are mad keen and retrieving is their life and then there is Murffi, who had to be taught absolutely every step of the way. The other three I started as very young puppies with retrieving rolled up socks and little soft toys. Once they started to really enjoy the game I would restrict the number of retrieves to just a couple a day or so, which made them even keener to play the game, the addiction had started. It also meant no toys lying around the house etc for the dogs to play with, any retrieving games would always be started by me and ended by me and involve me. How old is your dog? It sounds as if she is enjoying the hunt much more than the bringing it back to you.
Re: Retrieving Addiction Here is an article that might help. Its called Building and Maintaining Retrieving Desire. This explains how the whole retrieving process fits together. The Retrieving Process Explained. You can certainly develop a delivery to hand later, but it helps if you can mould it from the beginning.
