Won\'t Give Up Ball

We were having a discussion earlier on chat about this. When we send our dogs to fetch, Fido is supposed to be a good dog, get the ball, and hand it over. Well Gideon and a few other wont do that. So I found this really informative website about it!

Websites:

http://dogs.thefuntimesguide.com/2006/09/dog_playing_with_balls.php
http://users.tkk.fi/~mtt/training.html
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~may/text6.html
http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com/fetch-or-retrieve.html
http://www.wenwen.ws/pet/Dog/Why-does-my-dog-never-bring-the-ball-back-a1x6046526.htm


Quote:

Quote :

Whenever you're playing "catch" with a dog who doesn't ever want to give up the ball so you can throw it again, try this...
Play with two balls!
You throw one, he'll go fetch it and bring it back to you.
Then you immediately throw the other one, causing him to drop the one in his mouth before he leaves.
The result: A never ending game of "drop and go fetch".
Now you can enjoy playing catch with your dog again

Ooh, thanks! I wasn't realy paying much attention to chat

I'll pop in now x)

Yeah, great idea!

Another thing I've found that works is having a treat handy. While playing Fetch I make Travis either sit or Platz before I throw the ball. [I use the NILIF method of raising him]
When he brings the ball and refuses to give it to me, I tell him to sit. I show him the treat and say 'drop it'. He drops the ball because he wants the treat. I mark the behavior and give him the treat. :]

I do also use two balls sometimes.

Yah but Gideon runs so hard, it woudnt make him sick?

Use a very very small piece.

The treats I use with Travis for training are probably the size of a marble and even then I break them into four pieces.

I was part of the original chat discussion and a suggestion was made there to try working with another toy besides a ball to see if that would work.

The result - NO!

Noah will not even consider another toy if there is a ball (any ball) around.

The problem with treats is that Noah prefers his ball to the treat so he refuses to give it up.

Have extra balls in your pocket???

hmm thats how Gideon was at first. So what i did is when he wouldn't give up the ball, I just walked away. Okay fine you want it then you have it, but no running to get it anymore! Ty it, it worked for Gideon!

Here's another tip!

I have found that this works for Zero (especially when she was younger, she is now 3)

Zero would let me grab the toy, but wouldn't let it go, she would just pull on it. What I found worked to get her to drop it was, with my free hand I put it on top of her muzzle near her nose and squeezed lightly and said 'drop it'. It's gotten to the point that now I don't even need to put my hand on her muzzle, she just drops it when I ask

hmm i kinda like that idea!

Our dog wont give the ball back either. We use the 2 ball meathod. We used to use treats but he was so smart that once we stopped the treats he stopped giving up the ball.

Thats why you train them. Don't just use treats, apply a command too.

I did the similar technique with Sasha.

She LOVES a game of tug and whenever she retreats a ball/toy, she wants me to pull it like a tug o war.

I entertain her sometimes and play tug, but when I am ready to take the ball away, I use my other hand and lightly pinch her nose and say "drop it"

Now when I say drop it, she will drop her ball in my hand automatically. As long as I don't say the command she would continue to pull...

Also when she is getting tired of fetch, she would not bring the ball back. She would take the ball and sit down away from me. That's when I know she had enough...and I can stop throwing.