Messy Retrieves

[Seita]

So after watching my crazy girl just about flip (literally) over her dumbbel during a retrieve at a Trial on the weekend I have decided that I need to do something about how she picks the thing up.

Currently she bolts out to the dumbbell (or anything else that she might be retrieving) with loads and loads and loads of enthusiasm and pretty much hits it full on, she normally hits the breaks as she reaches the item and sometimes manages to scoop it up cleanly but most of the time she almost stumbles over it or ends up with a mouthful of dirt or grass!! I have had a few judges let out a bit of a chuckle as she just about falls over on the pickup! I think I want to tidy this up abit as it's a waste of points to keep being docked for being a bit messy... with UD on the horizion there is enough other places to lose points without worrying about messy retrieves so I want to do something about this now!

I've seen a few dogs that run past the thing they are retrieving and turn around before picking the item up and bringing it back and I am thinking that this might be the best style of retrieve to teach Ella to do... so anyone got any good suggestions or advice on how to "re-style" the current retrieve?

[The Spotted Devil]

Funny isn't it - I've been working for 6 months to get Zig excited about retrieving Finally got there but 3 times in one training session is all I ask of him at the moment!

Would you consider going back and (re) clicker training the retrieve? I think that's how I would approach it - so you are reinforcing the retrieve with food rather than building on the excitement of the retrieve. Might be easier to be very precise about the behaviour you want???

[dogdude]

My Girl can be a bit the same, and I have pondered what I could do.

I keep coming to the conclusion that I need to lower the drive a bit, but I am reluctant to do so. Most times she will pick it up cleanly, so I am happy to work with the numbers.

I guess that you could teach her to run past it by setting up some kind of barrier, which you could fade to get her to do a u turn, but if drive was still high, there would be a good chance that she still may dive bomb it.

These kind of problems seem to crop up in drive training, (in my limited drive training experience). Maybe K9 may be able to help?

[Ptolomy]

Best thing I have found to improve the pick up.....

Leave the dog in a sit stay walk away and drop the dumbell, keep walking about turn so you are facing the dog and then ask the dog to fetch - so basically you are asking the dog for a recall with a fetch. The dog doesn't have to worry about the turn at all and it just seems to help with the timing.

You can vary the distance on how close you drop the dumbbell to the dog or how close it is to you.

[Staranais]

Are you guys using the dumbbell as the drive object, or are you rewarding with another drive object for picking up the dummbell?

I'm no expert, but my old boy's formal retrieve improved ten fold when I retrained retreiving the dumbbell as just a means to a drive reward, instead of actually using it as the drive reward.

Makes the whole thing much more controllable, as you can give immediate negative verbal feedback (uh - uh) for unclean pick ups or pick ups from the wrong angle, and then withold the reward, and ask her to try again. Whereas if the dumbell is the reward, they've already been rewarded for the messy pick up!

Also gave much less chewing and mouthing.

[Seita]

drive reward in this case is a tug... she does everything at five hundred miles per hour regardless of what it is. Her run out to the dumbbell is just as quick as her return with it, it's just in her enthusisasm she tends to be a bit over the top and messy with the dumbbell.

I think dogdude knows exactly what I'm talking about here and those were my sort of thoughts too... about lowering the drive but I also don't want to do that. Might shoot K9force an email and see what he can tell me!

Ptolomy that was one of my thoughts as well... or placing the dumbbell on something raised or in something so she has to stop to pick it up rather than leap on it.

Someone else suggested that I put the dumbbell in a corner and send her to it so she has to stop pick it up and turn around but once I move it out of the corner she goes back to her crazy messy retreive!

[dogdude]

Same here Staranais, she works for a tuggie.

I also put alot of work into a fast return, which I guess could be taking too much focus off the pickup.

Probably every third or fourth retrieve, I will release her to run past and behind me to the drive item, as soon as she picks the dumbell up and turns.