teaching "hold"

[D'Elle]

I read with interest the "teaching bring" thread. Jester fetches like a champ (obsessively, in fact) and will bring anything to me. If I say "get it" he will pick it up. But then he immediately throws it down again at my feet, thinking I will throw it for him perhaps. I would like to teach him to pick up, say, my keys (with a cloth ribbon or something attached to make it easy) or a glove, and then hold it for me to take from his mouth. How? If I hand him something he spits it out...no way to get him to hold it in his mouth for even the fraction of a second it would take to praise him for it. Any ideas?

thanks

[RaisingRiver]

Give him something to hold. Say hold, click. He'll spit it out, but you have that half a second to catch him. I imagine if you just stand there, your BC will try to pick up the object again and toss it to you (mine does). If so, click immediately when he picks it up. I would think you could possibly get him to 'hold' it longer as he figures it out.

 

OOoooo OR, hand him something to hold, THEN immediately take it from his mouth, say Thank you! You could even intercept your dog when he's bringing something back to you (with another human) and take it from his mouth before he drops it. That should teach him that you take things from his mouth.

 

It's like teaching him the opposite of 'drop'. You want, 'don't drop' so that you can take it.

 

Does that makes sense? Give you ideas? I'm just going off the top of my head here.

[Kat's Dogs]

lol! RaisingRiver, I was going to say the SAME two things!

 

This is what I did with Daz (only later did I go "oops, could have done that with a clicker", but if you don't have a clicker or don't clicker train then this still works).

 

With Dazzle I would say "get it" and then when she dropped it at my feet I didn't move at all. After a bit of time she got frustrated that I wasn't picking it up and to she picked it up, and shoved it at me (near my hand). I took it (and praised her) then threw it. As time went on, she relised that she had to get it in my hand if she wanted me to throw it. Next I moved my hand so she couldn't reach it. At first she tried throwing it my hand because she couldn't reach, but after a bit more time she learned that she just had to sit there with "it" in her mouth and I would reach down and take it.

 

The other way was teaching it with the clicker and giving it a command - "hold" (as in the AP). Once your pup knows the hold command start with the fetching again and when he gets close to where he drops things, say hold. Little by little wean off the hold command so it is natural for him to hold things until you either take them or tell him to let go.

 

~happy training.

[smileyzookie]

LOL you beat me to my next question! LOL Good luck!!