by Bill Bailey » Tue 24 Apr 2007 10:19 am
Hi Dianne,
A suggestion that might help is to give your dog a few short double marks on land rather than singles, as follows. Throw the first one as usual but have the second one on a light cord. Throw that one to land in the open, so that your dog will see it as he returns with the first one. Send your dog for the first one and when he picks it up call "Come" with a note of urgency in your voice. As he looks towards you give the cord to the second mark a tug to make it "skip into the air" as though it was escaping. All going well your dog will gladly release the first one to you so that it can get the second one. Set it all up carefully so that if your dog drops the first one you can pick up the second one before your dog does. If that happens insist on the first retrieve being completed before the second one is commenced.
If you want to be extra careful, which is often the way to go. Initially just get your dog to heel with the "first dummy" in its mouth. Tell it to "Sit" firmly. Then throw the dummy on the cord, make it skip, etc. Then take the first duimmy and correctly send your dog from the heel position to retrieve the second dummy.
As things improve and you want to get back to singles. Just throw the mark as you see fit but hold the second dummy in your hand. As your dog turns and starts to come towards you, throw the second one. Of course make sure that you can prevent your dog from getting it if he drops the first dummy. Gradually bring about a situation where your dog is looking forward to another retrieve after the first one.
Once your dog is reliable on land repeat things with the first retrieve into water. As a water retrieve takes longer than a land retrieve, your dog will have to rember the second retrieve for a longer period, so give the cord two tugs, the second one as your dog gets closer to the bank. It might also be worth standing in the water to accept delivery of the water retrieve. Only gradually move back to accepting delivery on land when everything is going ok. From what I have seen hunting for another dummy is far more interesting to a dog of reasonable ability than just holding on to the last one.
Whatever you do, do not show anything other than low level friendly relaxation. No anger, frustration, hostility or physical punishment. As far as I am concerned if anything goes wrong when I am training it is my fault not the dog's. My aim is to set things up so that the dog gets it right the first time and every time. Ideally he learns to do what I want without knowing it. My job is to make doing it correctly the obvious thing to do, in that situation, from the dog's point of view.
Hope this is of some help.
Regards Bill Bailey