whatevah

Side view. You can see where my hands are in relation to his body. Each dog has its own style.

View from behind (literally). You can see what he is doing as he goes around the back. You can see a collision with my face just about to happen, thats why I would not recommend this trick for large dogs.

Moses jumping coming back from the forward jump.

Here is Moses jumping over my outstretched arms. I would not try this if you have a large dog, say a Newfoundland. In the training phase my nose got hit and also my cheek, no damage done as Moses to me is only a lightweight dog.

Here is Moses finishing the side jump. I also got Moses to jump through my arms then jump back through them again.

Here are some photos of Moses doing the through your arms trick, I hold my arms very low to the ground as I don;t him to hurt himself if he twists the wrong way. I also added this trick to his wagon retreive. I hold my arms out he jumps through and then retrieves his wagon.

Thats where video cameras are great. All the photos I have posted to this forum have been taken using a video camera. I just film the scene, then play it back and hit pause, and I then get a still. Great!!!! I use the word bow, but for drop, I use the word drop. I also think teaching this trick on a wet surface may help, as the dog doesn't really want to drop, and some dogs will just put the front end down and leave the back end up. Looking forward to the photo.

With my flatcoat I used luring. I lured him down and only if he kept the bow, did he get the food. No food for dropping. I think someone lured and I clicked when he was in right position. With Moses, tryed a bit of free shaping with the clicker. I clicked for him standing and then for looking at the ground, then for touching the his nose to the ground and then I got a slight elbow bend and clicked for that, but I couldn't get much further. So then I did the target method, where I placed my two fingers together on the floor and said "touch" and clicked and treated when he touched. Sometimes he dropped. But we peservered with it. Sometimes it is good to give something the dog is having trouble with a little break, for a couple of days or a week and come back to it. I think they get stuck into a mind set. I now have him doing a bow. Anybody got photos?

This can be quite a hard trick and may take a while to teach. Take a Bow Uses - Good stretching exercise for dog before agility/flyball, fun party trick, used in doggy dancing Equipment Needed - treats/ and or clicker Methods - Lure Method - Have the dog in a stand (off lead), hold a piece of food in between the dogs legs. The dog should bow, then give the treat. Add Cue word "bow" Target Method - Teach the dog to target your fingers, (when dog places nose touching finger, he gets a reward, practice this really well before going onto next step), then place your fingers down on the ground between his front legs and say your word for touching your fingers (mine is "touch"). When the dog does this he is in bow position. Clicker Method - Lure dog down with food and as soon he puts his front paws down with rear end still in the air click and treat. Trouble Shooting Dogs goes into a drop position. Try putting the food down and quickly raising it back up before he has time to fully drop. Mine dogs kept doing this one all the time. Only click and treat where the dog leaves his rear end in the air. Some people hold the dog under the tummy so he cannot drop. My dogs don;t like this one. Some people also place their hand against the back knee to stop the dog from dropping. You could also try and capture this movement. Whenever dog does a bow click and treat. Some dogs have an early morning stretch. You also try placing the dog in the corner, so he does not have room to drop. For some dogs this trick can take ages to teach. You can try giving it a rest for a couple of days and coming back to it. When dog gets it right, give a big jackpot of food. Try and finish on a good note.

Josh doing leg weaves, series.

Here is another picture of a great water retrieve.

Bringing back his prize. Would love to see other people's photos.

Coming back to me with his toy. It is a stuffed gorilla. You can see my hand in the background encouraging him along.

He presses the pedal with his foot to open the lid, I taught him this through targetting. I first taught him to put his foot on a piece of cardboard, I then moved the cardboard to the pedal, I then took the cardboard away and only clicked when the lid started to rise.

He goes out to the bin and presses the pedal with his foot.

Your picture didn't come out. I find it helps to start retrieving with the dog from day 1!!! I practiced with Moses when I collected him at the airport! Make it lots of fun and tease the dog with the item. I always try to get the dog to deliver it to my hand. Here is another trick that I taught him using retrieving and targeting. Has anybody else got examples or pictures of their dogs retrieving, even flyball pictures as that is retrieving. I found that flyball has helped in fast retrieves as well.

The next part of the drawer retrieve. You can see it in his mouth, once he brought it back to me, I then sent him back to the drawer to close it.

He has opened the drawer himself using the white scrunchie which is also on the wagon.

Have you tried the two squeakies game? I found this really helps with the drive, and also using soft articles, or lambs wool. Here is a photo of another retrieve trick.

I have clicker trained him to put the handle right in my hand.

returning back

got it

Just about there.

going out for the wagon

Retrieving Uses Forms the basis for many tricks, is great exercise for the dog Equipment Needed Dog, Food, Toys Method To teach my dogs to retrieve I used Shirley Chongs Clicker Method. I also wanted to test out the clicker. So I got Josh my flatcoat retriever who was not interested at dumbells and followed Shirley's clicker recipe to the letter, not rushing the dog and just following the steps. We had success. I tried it on my next dog when he was 3 months old again success. It took about a month for the pup to do a formal novice retrieve, it took about 2 months for my older dog, when I ran into trouble I just emailed shirley and got a response. Josh had a reliable retrieve but he would spit out his toy before returning to me, so I just started at the start of this method and went from there. http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/retrieve.html If you don;t want to do a formal retrieve, I played the two hoses game. This game really increases the dogs drive to retrieve. http://www.nwk9.com/twosqueakies.htm For this game you need two toys. You throw one toy a short distance away, when the dog starts to return with it, and is nearly next to you, you then throw the other toy in the opposite direction. The dog should drop the first toy and go running for the second toy, you gradually increase the distance. My flatcoat retriever got 2nd at the flatcoat fun day for fastest retrieve, he was beaten by a fraction of a second. Using retrieving I have taught my dogs several tricks including fetch the red wagon, retrieve the toy out of the closed drawer, retrieve the toy out of the rubbish bin with the pedal attached. See the attached photos. My dogs will also swim out for their toys.