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Training to drop ball


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My kids and I play a lot of baseball and frisbee, both with and without the dog. When my son & I are playing catch with a ball there are lots of times for the pup to join in, and we include her in the games quite a bit. The problem is simple, she just wont give up the ball when she should. She is just about 4 months now, so I think I should be able to work this out. In a 1 on 1 situation, I dont have any trouble getting her to give it up, frisbee, balls, or whatever, when I'm with the kids she wants to make a game out of it. I hate to get so serious about this but sometimes you want to have a serious catch with your kids, and the pup is just getting in the way. I've tried rewarding her for sitting next to me, then when someone misses a ball have her get it, but she wont bring it back...

Any great suggestions out there...

 

thanks

kelly

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Kelly - is your problem that she won't come back to you or the kids when she's with the kids? Will she come back and just not give up the item? Does she want to play chase or tug instead?

 

The best thing I've found - and be careful with kids doing it, but sounds like your pup is pretty good with kids. (Just be sure she doesn't nip fingers with this...) One solution: Give a treat when she arrives at your feet with the toy in her mouth - if it's good enough (hot dogs, real meat, at least dry liver treats you can keep in a pocket - none of those horrid crunchy dry things! ), she'll drop whatever she's got in her mouth to eat! If all else fails, aim for the stomach! Yum....

 

diane

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Oh Katherine your post did make me chuckle. That's just what my Tess does. Because she came to us with her sister,Pepsi, she played with her instead of toys. I know that look so well, and I do end up going to get it myself. Isa loves chasing after a ball and I'm going to use that to my advantage when I eventually start serious agility training with her.

Best wishes, Val and her girls.

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Thanks for the replies, I think the real problem here is the distractions from all the kids. When I'm alone with Roxy I dont have a problem, with a treat I've gone as far as taught her to drop a ball into a bucket. I think she likes to tease the kids and make them chase her.

 

Oh well, we are starting school this week and I hear that should help with the distraction problem...

 

Thanks everyone.

 

kelly

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another method that works if they won't give up the toy is to ignore them. They will soon realize that they have to give you the ball if they want to keep playing. I learned to do this because Max isn't interested in treats when he is playing fetch. He only wants to do one thing when retrieving and that is to get whatever I am throwing and bring it back to me as fast as he can.

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Hey everyone, I'm 13 and I've had a Border Collie for two years. Me and her, we're partners in crime and we have equal personalities. She's alot of fun. I have two other dogs too. One of them is a Border Collie mut and he loves to play when he has the energy but once he has the ball, go buy another one! Your not getting it back. My Border Collie Licky though wants to play catch so incredably bad, she just wants to keep playing that she can't get the ball into my hand fast enough. Sometimes she wants to play tug but if I clearly say, "Drop it," she will because she's learned that unless she drops it without a fight, I'm not going to throw it. Hope I was a little help. Bye

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