Retrieve Training 101

There are many important parts to training a retrieve, the most important one is probably the dog picking up the item it is supposed to retrieve. This is a very basic behavior and one that most dogs do naturally. . . Abby is not most dogs. Despite everything that Abby has eaten, I have never seen her pick any thing up. I have seen her gnaw and gum things to death, but never pick anything up and carry it. I knew that this would be my biggest challenge in training the retrieve.

So far, Abby has done great with the training. I found the perfect object for her, and spent some time getting her touching the object. We spent so much time training it, that Abby will touch her "naughty bone" any where, any time. She LOVES it. This part of the training was very easy as she already has a basic "target", but it was still fun and easy to work on.

Teaching her to open her mouth and put it around the bone was going to be a very messy endeavor. I had a few ideas, but my instructor had the best one when she said to put peanut butter on the bone and "hand it" to her as if you would hand a cookie. When I heard that, I wanted to slap my head and say "doh!" Of course Abby opens her mouth for treats!

Today, we spent out time clicking and treating for any tooth on the bone itself. It took a few minutes to get her started as she tried to lick all the peanut butter off the bone, but once most of it was gone, she started to put her teeth on it. At first she seemed confused to be getting clicked and treated just for eating peanut butter, but I think that she was getting the idea towards the end of session. Well, at least, as soon as I offered the bone to her, she immediately put her teeth on it and let go the second I clicked knowing she was going to get a cookie. I think it is going to take a few more sessions of this before she is ready to have the bone on the ground. But Abby is smart and I think that she will eventually get it. But until she completely "gets it" and we can wash the bone, we are going to have to manage it like this:

Ok, So I Lied. . .

A few posts ago I said that I needed a break from dogs, and that we were going to take a break from training. I was hoping that the training break would last until January... I had a feeling that it wouldn't, but I was still hopeful. All sings were pointing to a nice long break until our rally instructor said that Abby would be ready to move up to level 3 for the next set of classes.

Normally, this would have made me very happy and proud. A few months ago, I fully believed that Abby would be in level 1 for the rest of her life. I truly thought that I would never be able to ask her to do all of these exercises and do them off leash. But, Abby proved me wrong, as she continues to excel at this odd little sport. I am very proud of her, but now I have to start training again!

Most of the level 3 exercises are built off level 2. Some are new to level 3, but not new to Abby - we just haven't practiced them in awhile. But there is one new exercise that I knew was coming, but I had since chosen to ignore: the retrieve. Ack! Abby can't retrieve! How in the world am I supposed to teach Abby to retrieve? Sure, there was a time when Abby couldn't do an A-frame, or a tunnel, but those were different! This is a retrieve!

So, now our *vacation* from training is now a super intensive retrieve training. Luckily for me, a wonderful trainer is teaching her dog to fetch (aka, retrieve), and she is posting videos on her blog. Her dog started out a lot farther along than Abby. Right now, we are just C&T for a touch on her absolutely awesome new retrieve toy:


I was trying to find something plushy and small enough for her to carry. I also wanted something that squeaked as she *sometimes* gets excited about squeaky noises. When I saw this, I knew it was made especially for us. I know it is technically a Christmas item, but Abby is naughty all year long, so I figured it was ok.