Retrieving for the non-retriever and structuring walks/field time

[SaddlePsych'D]

Thought I'd share a little training update and see if anyone has any top tips for me and Ivy.

With the evenings drawing in and heavy rain on the way, I'm back to thinking about indoor enrichment and things we can do on the walks we do have to exercise Ivy's brain as well as her noodly legs. I'm thinking it's high-time for some more 'pub dog' practice, which is basically settle on the blanket and there's some cheesy chips in it for you. This worked so well where we lived previously that she started trying to take us into the pub on walks even when it was closed! She's nervous but I think if we keep practicing in less busy places it will help get her confidence up. She quite likes people once she's realised all is well; she made a lovely friend at the train station at the weekend, and even confident enough to point her snoot at them for more when they had the audacity to stop the scritches

I'm quite proud of us given I don't really know what I'm doing and Ivy isn't a 'live to please you' kind of dog. We've gone from toys being something to destroy and/or resource guard (still applies to the rabbit skin chaser thingy which mainly lives in the cupboard now), to getting her to look at a low value toy, to put her snoot on it, to mouthing it, to picking it up for a second, to picking it up and wildly flinging it around....all the way to nearly sort of, sometimes successfully bringing the toy and putting it in my hands. Clever noodle! I'm also trying to teach two toy names and eventually see if we can select the right one from a choice of the two. Any tips for how to keep shaping this and helping Ivy be successful in getting the toy to my hands gratefully received

We've also been back crate training as haven't done this for a while. Not that we crate her, it's just a den at the moment to give her an alternative to squishing herself behind the armchair if there's fireworks. We've also had some success with 'brave cheese' and muzzle training. She probably did wear a muzzle in her past life but isn't keen on it so working on that as it struck me we could need it if we ever had to take her to the vet for something other than her routine jabs and checks.

I'm also trying out 'heel' (we have 'middle' which is quite good) and a standing 'wait' - both patchy/a work in progress!

Another question I had was about structuring walks and time at the secure field. Do people do this and if so how do you go about it? Training first then more free/sniffing time or the other way around. I don't want to teach Ivy to ignore us (especially for off-lead stuff) but her 'listening ears' do seem more plugged in when she's had her initial sniffing and trot about.

More pointy hound spam for getting through the essay...

 

[Morwenna]

I’m teaching mine toy discrimination based on names. I started by throwing a toy and when she was running for it adding in the cue to get whatever it was and then the same with her other toy. Now if I ask her to get a particular toy she can (she knows three of them now). In terms of a delivery to hand, does she have a good hand touch as that is the starting point? I ask mine to touch my hand and throw a treat as a reward so she is always running back to touch my hand and then gradually introduce the toy, starting with it very close to me and building the distance as she gets very over- excited with retrieving and then plays keepaway.
In terms of structure, mine has the attention span of a gnat so she initially gets a few minutes of on lead sniffing in the area we will work in, then I do some focus exercises and then whatever training I have planned. I try to keep to a smaller area and then when we have finished, cue a release and move off so she has the whole area to run and sniff and explore. No idea if that is the right way to do it but it works for us.

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

Ooh no I didn't know about hand-touch (it's all been a bit DIY training so all the more amazing Ivy has got as far as she has). Is that to touch your hand with the nose?

I just remembered we did 'snoot' which was to lay her head/nose on my hand. I can't remember why I thought that was a useful thing to teach her, perhaps it will come in handy now?

 

[Morwenna]

Ooh no I didn't know about hand-touch (it's all been a bit DIY training so all the more amazing Ivy has got as far as she has). Is that to touch your hand with the nose?

I just remembered we did 'snoot' which was to lay her head/nose on my hand. I can't remember why I thought that was a useful thing to teach her, perhaps it will come in handy now?

Yes, it’s them touching your hand with their nose. I use it a lot for fun and for various other things like retrieves. I also taught her to lie her nose on my hand / knee - we were taught this at puppy class as being good if you ever need to put eye drops in and also for taking selfies as you can then move it to their nose on your shoulder.

 

[honetpot]

I thank god I have easy dogs, who just need a mouch round a field, seconds of cow muck, and perhaps a dip in the pond. Took them to the seaside, apart from fish and chips they both looked fairly bored V the effort invested.

 

[skinnydipper]

Of course you can just let dogs entertain themselves but then you are missing out on the fun to be had when you actually play with your dog or make a game out of training.

The big girl was enjoying herself so much this morning when I was playing with her that she started doing zoomies round the obstacles in the field and that made me laugh out loud. Win Win

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

Of course you can just let dogs entertain themselves but then you are missing out on the fun to be had when you actually play with your dog or make a game out of training.

The big girl was enjoying herself so much this morning when I was playing with her that she started doing zoomies round the obstacles in the field and that made me laugh out loud. Win Win

We had a blast at the field on Monday. Pre-dinner so I think that made me and the treats that much more interesting! It was so nice to be out with Ivy. Loads of successful recalls, climbing up a bit of agility equipment (front paws only because it was scary), bouncing over a jump, and trying to practice our standing wait. She did get some good sniffing in too and her own time/space, it's just nice not letting her off to go ignore me the whole time.

One of the recall rewards is getting a toy chucked out, which she picks up then zooms a lap of honour, usually drops it, forgets all about it and proceed to zoom multiple laps of the field with some kamikaze runs at me just to spice it up! It does convince me that my caution about off-lead is not unwarranted because the speed is somewhat scary.

 

[Morwenna]

Of course you can just let dogs entertain themselves but then you are missing out on the fun to be had when you actually play with your dog or make a game out of training.

The big girl was enjoying herself so much this morning when I was playing with her that she started doing zoomies round the obstacles in the field and that made me laugh out loud. Win Win

I love my walks with my dog as it’s a chance to just have fun with her as well as doing some training. When we have finished whatever training I am working on for school we play lots of games like catch-me-if-you-can and hunting for treats etc. As well as the more formal obedience work we do I also want her to have fun with me, not to learn that the environment is more rewarding than I am.

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

I think we may have fallen into that trap a bit (environment more exciting) because we wanted to make sure Ivy could relax/decompress and she really loves sniffing about, but possibly we've gone a bit too far that way and then getting her attention back is a bit tricky. We'll get a better balance soon I hope!

 

[Christmascinnamoncookie]

Does she like bubbles? The boys had 2 long walks yesterday but Mitch was loopy, rolling round on my OH’s knee, squeaking. Turns out he wanted his bubbles in the garden, in the dark. It keeps him mentally stimulated (we’re careful not to allow too much leaping/twisting) and he loves it. It’s an easy way to keep him entpertained. Goose watches but never participates, he just doesn’t get it.

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

I honestly have no idea. I don't think she's met bubbles before!

Just in response to the earlier post in the thread - Ivy is probably about as easy a dog as you can get I think. I just know winter walking can get limited by the dark (we still go out it's just not as fun I don't think) and rain (she is a fairweather walker) so anything I can do to enrich the walks we do and our time at home is a bonus. It's nice building the relationship with her. I love when she's got her quizzical face on working out what the 'game' is and the joy celebrating and rewarding her when she gets it

 

[Love]

Purdey loves hunting for treats - started off close by and have worked our way up to hiding them in the next room/rolled in blankets/under cups etc and then send her back to find them (along with the "hunt" whistle). she absolutely loves it and the combination of sniffing and thinking seems to properly tire her little brain out