Ooh, thanks. So we have a confident hand touch without dummy. He has a lightweight training dummy which is currently very high value, so he’ll pick it up and gallop around with it, but it’s all high energy.
What else can I do?
- Thread starter Selina27
- Start date
- Location
- Andorra and Spain
So I'd start with restricting his space (start in the kitchen, hallway or somewhere similar) so he can't go rocking-horsing around with the article in his mouth, then calmly start working on him holding the dummy and increasing the duration of that. There's a million different ways of approaching this, depending on how quickly he picks it up (pun intended). Then I'd work on including the hand target. It can be a bit tricky for the dog to get this at first when they have the dummy in their mouths, so just as you'd shape the target to start off with, start with really low criteria of a slight look at your hand, then a slight turn of the head towards it etc. Eventually, you can work up to the dog following your hand with the dummy in his mouth.
Brilliant, thanks @snowbunny . We’ve just had a play, turns out he picked up the picking up very quickly, so we’re moving on to capturing the micro movements towards my hand 
I’ll definitely be breaking this down into tiny steps and short training slots, as he suddenly becomes averse to a hand when he has a dummy in his mouth.
Here’s the enthusiasm
I’ll definitely be breaking this down into tiny steps and short training slots, as he suddenly becomes averse to a hand when he has a dummy in his mouth.Here’s the enthusiasm
Beanwood
Administrator
We started this in the downstairs loo with Otter, well not many distractions in there....
It was some months before we did any real retrieves due to her injury. I have to say she has a fabulous delivery to hand now, so all that foundation work really helped ( when she isn't blowing off round the field with said dummy that is !). I did use a verbal marker cue as sometimes the clicker can be a little too arousing.With Bramble, after we established a consistent hold, we moved onto getting used to sitting whilst having the dummy in her mouth, then into heel position... etc...
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
No problem at all!! It's great to read of Kippers enthusiasm and progress, I shall follow with great interest
I started this more because I wanted to do a scent trail for her to make it more interesting for Cassie, the problem with using a real pheasant was that it was way too exciting for her to bother with the dummy, she picks them up othertimes.
I've decided to use a scent laden dummy to lay the trail and see if that makes a difference
- Location
- Close to Devon/Somerset border
I'll be very interested to hear how you and Cassie get on @Selina27
Obviously since lockdown, our training classes have stopped. Although I know the aim of the next stage I'm loathe to try it on my own in fear of getting it wrong, thereby making things far harder when we start again, to get out of bad habits.
Interestingly, Molly seems to have stopped hunting and whenever she sees me chopping up hot dog sausage goes into 'training' mode and sits beside me awaiting instruction
Obviously since lockdown, our training classes have stopped. Although I know the aim of the next stage I'm loathe to try it on my own in fear of getting it wrong, thereby making things far harder when we start again, to get out of bad habits.
Interestingly, Molly seems to have stopped hunting and whenever she sees me chopping up hot dog sausage goes into 'training' mode and sits beside me awaiting instruction
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Think I have found the answer to my question Rather than use a real dead pheasant, and let her watch me lay the trail, today I finally got round to lacing her small snipe dummy with pheasant scent, and shut her in the house while I dragged it across my very small garden. Brought her out and told her to seek it, and bingo she tracked it and bought the dummy back to me. I'm hoping to be able to do this in the great outdoors and have some fun with this! She enjoyed it seemingly
Using a real pheasant was way to exciting for her, she had zero interest in the dummy then. It will be interesting to see if I can build it up in the big world!!
Rather than use a real dead pheasant, and let her watch me lay the trail, today I finally got round to lacing her small snipe dummy with pheasant scent, and shut her in the house while I dragged it across my very small garden. Brought her out and told her to seek it, and bingo she tracked it and bought the dummy back to me. I'm hoping to be able to do this in the great outdoors and have some fun with this! She enjoyed it seemingly Using a real pheasant was way to exciting for her, she had zero interest in the dummy then. It will be interesting to see if I can build it up in the big world!!
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
- Location
- Close to Devon/Somerset border
Really well thanks @Selina27 ! The limitation is my skill in marking - he’s holding the dummy well, turning to me and most of the time nose touching. But sometimes he’s dropping the dummy before a nose touch, when I’m slow to capture the turn. Generally though we’ve got a marked improvement all round in terms of him looking for me when he has something in his mouth!