How to teach a terrier to drop??

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dogcalleddill

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Hello all, I've recently rehomed a JRT X. She's sound as a pound, I know her background and she's settled in fine :).

Only thing is I can't teach her to drop her toys - she'll only do it when she's ready. This is the same on walks and in the house (until I put all her toys away ;)). I never play tuggy with her and have tried getting her to drop the toys for a treat but it seems her toys are even higher value than food. Obviously I'd like her to know and obey "drop" just in case she got hold of something she shouldn't.

Any ideas, terrier experts? Thanks in advance!
 
I did it with clicker training.

Taught the click = treat, then throughout the day each time she dropped something out of her mouth I clicked and treated. Then added "drop" and click and treat. Now she drops on command (usually!).

Not sure how to go about it if she is more interested in the toys than treats, no doubt someone with more sense than me will be along soon!
 
I'd teach a 'leave it' command first with something that she is more likely to want to stay away from, then progress to the toys. I also use clicker.

For 'leave it', I place a treat in my palm and make a fist so the dog cannot get to it. I then place the closed fist really, really low on level with the dog's nose. As long as the dog licks, paws, touches, etc the fist I do nothing, the moment there is 'air' between her nose and the fist, I click and open the fist to allow her to get the food. Repeat little and often and soon the dog gets the idea that moving AWAY from the food gets you the food. You can then introduce the command word. When that is well established, move the treat to other locations, e.g. on your knee, on the floor, etc. As soon as that is well established repeat the training with an object (preferably not a toy that would get her possesive). Then finally work with the toys.

If you want a release for a retreave then that would be a separate exercise, but work on the leave it first.
 
I taught Bob (fox terrier x) right from the start to 'leave', he is obedient with everything, toys, bones, treats......just not dead rabbits ;-)
 
I went to a training class with mine ages ago, and one of the things they said was never to ask a dog (of any breed) to give up something without a "treat" in return, coz it just won't happen and you'll only get fingers/hands etc bitten!

So if mine gets hold of something undesirable now, I use a reward to bribe him to drop it, and have it in the palm of my hand until he does so. Basically if he doesn't give up what he's got, he won't get it!
 
Thanks everyone for the replies. For some reason I hadn't thought of clicker training; I'll definitely give that a go as I've had success with it in the past. I'm more used to deerhounds and lurchers - these little bruisers are a different ball game altogether, as it were ;)
 
Aw, go on then ;)

Here she is showing off her implausibly big ears

chilli3.jpg


and roachin'...

chilli1.jpg


I love her to bits - I'm a terrier convert!
 
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