Finally, the weather is cooling down a little. It’s really hard to work dogs when the temperature is 80 degrees at 6:00 am. This last week we have mornings in the sixties. A lot better for the dogs but fifties would be better but we’ll take what we can get.
Abby with a dowel dummy.
Abby with a plastic bumper.
Abby with a plastic dummy.
I moved the dogs off the bench several weeks ago. They have been doing their retrieves on the ground and I usually use a tennis ball. I have a stump near the kennels that I have them jump on after they chase the tennis ball down. Abby really enjoys this exercise, in fact she is way ahead of Boss on retrieving.
At first on the bench, Boss was doing better than Abby. Then it all changed. Abby started going down the bench pretty fast to get the dummies. Boss slowed to a crawl. I’m not sure what caused the change. On the bench, near the end of the time they worked on the bench, they would retrieve 6 or 7 dummies then I would do the same on the ground right beside the bench. Abby went pretty fast and seldom dropped the dummy once she picked it up.
Boss slowed even more. I think a turtle would have passed him in route to the dummy. But he would hold until I told him to give. And as long as he was making an effort I let him move at his on pace. If he didn’t start when I said, “fetch” stimulation came on. But at a real low level. But I had to walk out with him, usually.
When I moved them to the stump near the kennels I noticed that Boss would never go in front of me to make a retrieve. I had to walk out with him. So I started heeling him out and throwing the tennis ball to his side. Just a few feet. He got used to going away from me to make the retrieve and I started throwing to the side and a little in front. After several days I was throwing the ball straight in front of him and he was going for it.
Abby liked the tennis ball from the get go. She would run out scoop it up and return. Just before she got to me I said, “up” and she would jump onto the stump. When she held the dummy until I said, “give”. I would feed her a slice of hot dog. Earlier I used dog treats that I bought at various pet stores. Slicing a hot dog into 18 or 20 pieces seemed to work better for me. And Abby will do almost anything if she thinks she will get a treat.
Boss with a plastic dummy.
When I offered Boss a treat either on the bench or the stump he might lick it but he wouldn’t eat it. I kept trying to get him interested in the treats. One time at the vet’s office I asked Dr. Becker to check to see if there was anything wrong with his teeth or his bite or whatever. When he did take a treat it took a while for him to chew it up. Dr. Becker found nothing wrong.
Most mornings I work Mann and Sally on retrieving and give them a treat when they retrieve and hold until I say, “give”. And then Abby earns treats. Whatever is left at the end of the training session I divide between the dogs. I open their gates and feed them their share as they stand on their house. Boss would take a treat then but he still didn’t just scarf it down.
When Sally and Mann retrieve I use a Dokken quail dummy. This morning, because Abby has been doing real well on the tennis ball, I decided to see what she would do with the quail dummy. It made no difference to her. She ran out out scooped it up and jumped onto the stump. I said, “give” and took the dummy and threw it again. She’s doing real well so I only threw it 4 times before letting run for a few minutes.
Boss with a dowel dummy.
After she’s made a couple of laps around the yard I sit on the stump and pet her. I give her a few treats while I tell her what a good girl she is. Then I put her back in the kennel.
This morning with Boss, I tossed the tennis ball when I heeled him out near the stump. He acted like he didn’t see it so the stimulation came on. He thought, “oh, I remember. That tennis ball is right there”. He slowly walked to it, picked it up and came back to the stump. He didn’t get on right away. I had to say, “up”, forcefully, before he jumped onto the stump. The next 4 or 5 retrieves he trotted out, slowly picked the ball up and trotted back to the stump. Some of the time he would jump on without me saying anything and sometimes he waited for me to say, “up”. I offered a treat but he just turned his head.
Because he’s so slow and hard headed he has to do more retrieves than Abby. Then I follow him with the 4-wheeler as he makes a couple of rounds, extremely fast, around the yard. After a couple of laps around the yard I sit on the stump and pet him. He doesn’t just stand in front as the other dogs do he wants in my lap. And I let him.
Boss, not happy, but holding the dowel.
This morning as I petted him I offered him a slice of hot dog and he scarfed it down. That is the first time he has taken a treat when he wasn’t in his kennel. I gave him another and it disappeared instantly.
If I can get him to liking the treats maybe he will retrieve for a treat. It works on the others. Sally and Mann know if they don’t wait until I reach for the dummy, if they drop the dummy, they don’t get a treat. Sally is learning the same lesson. Boss, in my opinion, likes the treats but he isn’t selling out that cheap.
Sally waiting for me to take the dummy and give her a treat.
But after this morning, and him taking the treats by the stump, he may start trading a bumper for a treat. Abby, Sally and Mann have learned to enjoy retrieving by me using the treats. Although Mann just started accepting the treats a few weeks ago. He would occasionally accept one but he was more interested in being petted. Whatever works.
Abby and Boss are half brother and sister. They are out of Sally but Abby’s dad is a son of Tekoa Mountain Sunrise and Mann is Boss’s dad. But even dogs from the same litter are very different, sometimes, in what it takes to train them. I could put a lot of pressure on Boss but I might take something out of him. Or I might completely ruin him. June said I shouldn’t have named him Boss. He actually thinks he’s the boss. Maybe so.