Small frustration

[Lewis Moon]

For a couple of months Cerb has been fetching very well...as long as it was his favorite toy (see pic below). He would fetch until either I called it off or he got tired. The rub...as I hinted above, is he wouldn't fetch anything else. I'd throw a ball and he would chase after it grab it, start back and then he'd find something more interesting.

I took him out to a bare area (not much interesting) and he got very good at fetching the new ball. Run, grab the ball, bring it back, drop it at my feet, go to his "place" at my left side, receive treat. When we moved over to the grassy school yard....it was as if no training had occurred. I need to transition to a new toy because his fav has seen better days.

 

What am I doing wrong?

[Root Beer]

Sounds like you might have moved to the new area too quickly.

[geonni banner]

I had a similar problem with Sugarfoot, she had a favorite fetch toy and would refuse others and wait/ look for her favorite. I solved the problem by hiding the favorite toy on me - she could smell it, so she knew I had it. I would throw another toy and wait her out. When she finally fetched the less desirable toy, I would instantly reward her by whipping out and throwing the favorite. Maybe if you alternated toys, and reinforced with praise & treats...

 

It will be hard to tell if the new location is simply becoming "old hat" or your strategies are improving her fetching promptness. In either case, I think Root Beer is right - go back to the old place to test her out with the alternate toy ploy, and transition slowly into going to the new place more often.

[muttlycrew]

I had this issue with two of my dogs. Punk (my GR) just wanted to bring back her tennis balls -- she would rather run after the stuffies and well...de-stuff them. I did the same approach listed above -- throwing another toy and when she brought it back, I would whip out the ball and throw it for her. Now when it comes to dock diving, she'll retrieve anything, but on land...we are still working on bringing all items back.

 

Now Stella is obsessed with tennis balls. When I was introducing the Frisbee to her, if a ball was anywhere near her she wouldn't touch the Frisbee. What ended up working for her was tennis balls were toys she could play with in the house (her "one ball, two ball POUNCE!" game) and outside was only for Frisbee's. Whenever I brought out the Frisbee, I had to make a HUUUUGE deal out of it and always stop before she lost interest. She has now (few weeks later) gotten to the point that if one of the tennis balls magically ( ) finds it's way outside, she will leave it alone for the Frisbee. I've also noticed that if she has the ball in her mouth as I let the dogs outside, she drops it by the door and picks it up on her way back in. Same thing for the Frisbee, she heads inside and tosses it next to the back door....

[Lewis Moon]

I've tried alternating Cerb's toys but it's as if I've hit the off switch whenever I whip out the ball rather than his cat toy. I'm thinking I may just remove the favorite toy from the mix alltogether and proceed as if I were teaching fetch for the first time. If I do that, I'll probably move to one of the rubber Chuckit balls, as I hope to start using a Chuckit sometime when the weather starts to get cooler this fall and Cerb is older.

Here's one question I was wondering about: Do racquet balls (the ball I'm trying to use) taste bad? I know some rubber is rather gross tasting but I've always thought that dogs were more into texture than taste.

[muttlycrew]

I've tried alternating Cerb's toys but it's as if I've hit the off switch whenever I whip out the ball rather than his cat toy. I'm thinking I may just remove the favorite toy from the mix alltogether and proceed as if I were teaching fetch for the first time.

 

That's exactly what I had to do for Stella. As I said, I removed all the tennis balls from the yard so she only had the Frisbee and it helped immensely. She can now go between the two with no issues, but she now prefers to keep them in their separate areas (inside for balls, outside for Frisbee).

 

I am no help when it comes to textures/tastes.

[SS Cressa]

Not sure if it was already said... But have you tried to make the new toys fun? Treating them like it the greatest toy in the world. or are you just throwing it.

 

Also is there a reason you don't want him to play with his favorite toy?

 

As for balls my 2 like to play with tennis balls or a girls softball. They both turn their nose up at plastic balls or those latex/smooth plastic type balls. While they both like balls... Balls are their second choice. Cressa much prefers cloth frisbee while she won't touch hard plastic frisbee and will under protest bring back floppy plastic frisbees. Troy prefer cloth bumpers to balls. He won't touch the bumper if its made from plastic.

 

I don't press the issue tho. It they don't like it the toy will disappear and normally a stick will magically appear in Cressa mouth and she will bring it instead of toy.

 

Troy also depending on the situation can have problems with bring a toy back. The less dogs the higher the chance of him bringing it to you.

[Lewis Moon]

Not sure if it was already said... But have you tried to make the new toys fun? Treating them like it the greatest toy in the world. or are you just throwing it.

 

That's a good point. I'll try to make it more interesting/fun to him.

 

Also is there a reason you don't want him to play with his favorite toy?

 

His "cattycat" is falling to pieces. It's a soft rubber toy and not real chew resistant. Also, I have a crap shoulder and need about 1/2 hour of warmup before I can even play catch with my daughter. The Chuckit would help a lot.

[Maralynn]

That's a good point. I'll try to make it more interesting/fun to him.

His "cattycat" is falling to pieces. It's a soft rubber toy and not real chew resistant. Also, I have a crap shoulder and need about 1/2 hour of warmup before I can even play catch with my daughter. The Chuckit would help a lot.

 

Try the chuckit ultra balls. They are light weight and have some give to them, but are very tough and hold up well to Border Collie abuse. My dogs prefer the ultra balls to the other ones I've used.

[2 Devils]

Dogs don't generalize. You probably need to work on playing with toys in different areas in general. Train in different areas with different toys as if the dog has not been trained to fetch. Just short sessions and often. You and the toy have to be more fun than anything else.

[Lewis Moon]

Dogs don't generalize.

I've heard this and generally act on it, but I'm a little bit sceptical. I taught Cerb to "leave it" if he saw a dead toad, cat tootsie, dropped pill......I taught the command using kibble treats dropped on the ground. He got the concept pretty quickly. He has now generalized that to mean spitting out whatever is already in his mouth. I never trained him on that...he just got it one day when he picked up a food container some kid left in the school yard. I was too late with the command to prevent him from grabbing/tasting it but yelled "leave it" anyway because I couldn't think of anything else. He promptly spit it out. We now use leave it as a general command for releasing a tug toy, spitting out the odd garbage he dives for on walks and to prevent him from picking something up.

[2 Devils]

Yes but you have ended up teaching him the leave it command in different areas not just in one specific area.

 

Examples:

 

My rescued acd who I rescued Feb 22. She had no concept of playing, obedience, etc... we have had to teach Nali as if she was a puppy. She learned sit, down, her name and how to retrieve a ball within 1 week. Problem was she only did these commands in the living room. If we asked her to sit any place else she looked at us as if we were talking in a foreign language. The same goes with all the other commands. It took another 2 weeks before she could get the concept of doing these same commands that she learned so quickly in a different setting. She still does not understand the concept of retrieving outside in the backyward. She can do a beautiful swimmer's turn in flyball training and get the ball and bring it to hand, she can bring the ball to hand pretty much any place indoors but can't grasp the concept of it outdoors. We are working on it though.

 

My poodle was the same way with some of his training. He could do many things at home but not out and about. He would sit and come no problem but other commands were unknown. I had to treat him as if he did not know it.

 

Some things they seem able to understand any place but some commands take longer.

[Shetlander]

I don't press the issue tho. It they don't like it the toy will disappear and normally a stick will magically appear in Cressa mouth and she will bring it instead of toy.

 

I chose to press the issue when Quinn was a pup. As soon as I saw any preference for a toy, I'd put it up for a while and used other toys instead. A few times when he was young, he tried to hold out for a "better" toy but I was unmoved so he learned to be happy with whatever retrieve object I chose. My Sheltie has a list of requirements before she'll fetch a toy (small, fuzzy, squeaky and most importantly not too heavy) which can be a pain in certain situations. I've known dogs that are even more limited in what they will fetch (e.g., must be a standard tennis ball, period. Even a standard tennis ball that squeaks will be rejected ).

 

Now, Quinn is a born retriever (or at least he's been retrieving since he was 6 weeks old). His desire to play made my rules tolerable and not de-motivating. I also took this stance from the very start. For a dog who isn't as fetch-crazed, I like the ideas of making a big fuss about the new toy and alternating a less desirable toy with one they really like to keep their excitement and interest up. Eventually, the enjoyment in the act of fetching in general should carry over to them liking all fetch toys or at least the majority of toys. I do make a point, even with a highly motivated pup like Quinn to always try to leave them wanting more. Before Quinn grew an attention span, games of fetch sometimes consisted of exactly one rep.

 

I've used racket balls with no problems with Quinn and got the idea from a friend who preferred them to tennis balls because they don't get soggy. The tennis ball purist did reject them though.

 

I like the Chuck-It a whole lot. The shorter stick may be easier on your arm than the full sized one which is a bit heavier. Quinn especially likes the whistling Chuck-It Balls.

[2 Devils]

You should be careful when playing with sticks. A wrong move/bounce or whatever could cause serious injury to a dog.

[SS Cressa]

You should be careful when playing with sticks. A wrong move/bounce or whatever could cause serious injury to a dog.

 

Don't worry Troy and my sister dog makes sure the sticks are kept short with blunt edges. *sigh They both will shred the stick coming back. Good thing Cressa is good at find more.