I've been persisting with throwing a ball for Molly to pick and bring back to me. Have done the holding it in hand and letting her also hold it etc. and that seems to have worked quite well. When I first tried by the way, she would just take the ball, move several paces away and start to chew and rip it to pieces, so we have made some progress. I do have a bit of a problem though. Molly is picking up the ball, bringing it back to me and most times holding it toward me, or 'sort of' to hand. However, she will only do this about 3 times before plodding off as before, hunkering down and proceeding to rip the ball to tatters, this despite very tasty rewards when she brings it back. She almost seems to say 'stuff this for a game of soldiers' and is telling me that the retrieving game I'm trying to play is of little interest to her? My question is, should I accept this and just leave it when she walks away? All my previous dogs would have sold their souls to retrieve. Perhaps I should find something else that may interest her
She may be getting bored. Some dogs think if you're going to keep throwing the ball away why should I bother bringing it back.... Do you just throw it or do you hide it for her sometimes? Try getting her to hunt for it in long grass. If she'll still only do three goes make them count and then put the ball away and do something else
Ditto above, only throw twice or maybe just once. What kind of a ball is it? My dog LOVES tennis balls and likes to chew on them. Which is bad for their teeth by the way, fibreglass full of dirt. So I carry a ball hockey ball, which he will retrieve but they are smooth and he doesn't like to rip them up. They also float nice and high on the water. Now, a warning about them too, they come colour coded for weather. The colours are not standard. In winter a summer ball (mine is orange) can explode in ball hockey when hit in cold winter temperatures. I don't know if they could explode when my dog runs and gets one but I use the pink ones winter. Blue ones are for even colder, I can't find them. I swear one day I will walk into the local ball hockey club, where it's always been boys working, and ask, "Do you have blue balls?"
Thanks bbrown and Snowshoe. bbrown - Yes, I have tried hiding the ball, she finds it and immediately goes off to chew Snowshoe - it is a Kong tennis ball, slightly larger than an ordinary tennis ball, same furry yellow covering though and unfortunately it squeaks when chewed which I didn't realise when I bought it. I didn't know about fibreglass in the coating, I hope different stuff is used on the Kong balls as they are designed for dogs. I certainly won't use proper tennis balls again. Would love to be a fly on the wall when you go looking for blue balls in the hockey club
The Kong balls are better than regular tennis balls, but they're still abrasive, especially when they pick up particles of dirt and sand, so you don't want to use them a lot. Dogs that chew tennis balls a lot can end up with severely worn enamel. Plain rubber balls are better.
Well, this morning Molly has shown me, very clearly what she'd rather play with than a ball. Tuggy. Since we lost our dear old cocker Alfie a few weeks ago, she hasn't had anyone to play tuggy with, so she's chosen me. She picks the awful stinky thing up and thrusts it at me until I take hold, then her eyes light up and she starts pulling. I don't like this game for various reasons. Luckily the Labrador Site newsletter pinged into my inbox this morning, the subject being toys, very appropriate and timely
HeeHee - get her a clean tug toy and use it as a reward for giving you a ball. Both my dogs will settle down and chew a retrieve given the chance. I interrupt the behaviour, because it's dreadful to stop if it becomes ingrained (as it has with my older dog). I think using a ball that they are less likely to chew is helpful, or use a dummy, definitely get rid of the squeaky ball. My older dog is terrible for this with textured hollow very flexible plastic balls (from pets at home). If he gets one of those he'll play keep away and chew it until there is nothing left of the ball. He is similar with chunkit balls (those flexible orange hollow balls) but I got over that by getting one on a tug toy so he'll now give me one for the reward of chewing and tugging the other on the handle. My puppy will wander off with a dummy and settle down to chew if we are clicker training a retrieve and she gets it wrong so gets no reward. She disengages from the game, and decides to entertain herself (this sounds similar to what is happening with Molly). The solution to this is to keep the rate of reinforcement high, and to ask for something that can be rewarded e.g. a hand touch, if she makes a mistake.
Oh, my two are learning to play tug. It's a great game, when played with the right rules. They're not really natural tuggers, so it's something they've had to learn to enjoy, but we're getting there Our rules are: I absolutely do not shake the toy. If they want to shake it, that's fine. I don't drag them around, lift them up or similar. They can only take it on cue. They have to release it when I ask. They have to hold it with their back teeth.
Interested as to why you don't like tuggy, as I was going to suggest you play it! My Molly isn't very excited about playing fetch with balls, though she does like playing catch, and will do a limited number of formal retrieves ( to please me, I think). However tuggy is the thing she loves and what I use as a reward during training and as away of building a good relationship between us. Tuggy doesn't have to be very rough and go on and on. We tug for less than a minute before I give a release cue, then I toss the toy to her, she brings it to me and we have another tug. Recently I've also started throwing the toy out and Molly fetches it eagerly for another tug. I've also found it good for impulse control - occasionally on release (when she has to sit) I throw the toy in the air and catch it myself ( Molly knows she doesn't grab it till I say 'play'). This builds excitement as she's waiting for the cue to get it. I think I spoiled proper retrieving for Molly by trying for steadiness before I had built desire, and the tuggy game remedies this.
A few years ago, walking our old epileptic lab BJ in his latter years I came across someone 'training' a staffie with various bits of kit, including a tuggy. This was early in the morning in a very remote area, safest and happiest place for BJ at that time. I won't go on with what else I saw, just that it has really put me off playing tuggy with a dog. Molly, when playing with Alfie was always very keen but was really only a l'il britches pup then. Now, however, when she sees I've taken hold of the tuggy, she goes at it with a furious purpose which I don't feel comfortable with. I let the thing go very quickly and distract her on to something else. Will try to find something toy-wise that doesn't seem to encourage quite so much aggression.
@FayRose I'm so sorry to hear about Alfie. I remember the photos and stories you shared in Molly's early days - poor Alfie's tail! It would be lovely to see some photos and read some stories about him over in Rainbow Bridge, if you feel up to it
Thank you so much, I will get some things together about that dear old chap and post them. Never gets any easier losing them does it?
