Faith's Mad Retrieving Skillz
I usually hand-feed at least the first half of Faith's meals to get some quality training time in. I was just giving her her dinner and practicing some serious stuff like our fronts, finishes, stand-stays, and backwards heeling, and also some silly stuff like her play-bow trick and her high-five (or should it be high-eight?) trick. Towards the end we started doing some retrieval games. Retrieval isn't required until Level 3 of APDT rally (and it's not required at all as far as I know for AKC), but it's never too early to get started, right? Faith's natural retrieving instincts would do her hunting ancestors proud, but in her two years, all she's really had to retrieve have been toys, and it's been perfectly acceptable for her to deposit them on the floor somewhere in the thrower's immediate vicinity. That's not quite what the formal retrieve calls for. For now, our "game" has been as follows. While Faith is in a sit-stay, I throw some random object (often a shoe, but I've also used a TV remote, an (unused) poop bag, a paper towel, and just now a clicker) a few feet away. Then I point at the object and tell Faith to "pick it up." She trots forward, picks up the object, and comes back to me. She totally gets it up to here. She also understands that I want it in my hand. If I'm ready to take the object, all is well. However, I'm having trouble teaching her to hold on to the object until I take it. She'll hold it for a second or two, and then she drops it at my feet. Then I tell her to "pick it up" again, take it, and treat Faith. (I initially started out by trying to teach her to "hold it," but I had less success with that method because Faith got bored.) Interestingly, we've been doing a similar retrieval game with her leash because I want to eventually teach her to bring me her own leash when it's time to go out, and she's much better about hanging on to the leash until I take it from her. Anyway, I've tried a few times to get her to sit with the object in her mouth, and it was a no go. She gets the retrieve (sort of) and she gets the sit, but both together? Madness! Something kind of funny happened just now, though. (Okay, maybe "funny" is stretching it. It's funny to me.) I threw the clicker, sent Faith after it, and delayed taking it just for a minute. Faith dropped the clicker. I told her to "pick it up" again, and she gave me an exasperated look (no, I don't personify my dog), picked it up, and rolled over on her back with it still in her mouth. (It's funnier if you know that her belly-up position is her "give me a treat now, please" gesture.) It was like she was saying, "Okay, you crazy woman, I've got the clicker now, will you please feed me?" If she can roll over holding the clicker, though, she can certainly sit! I just have to convince her of that....