Training Dogs With Lights

[tangopatutti]

Both my GSD and Cattle Dog are obsessed with balls, they love, love, love fetch above anything else.

But the GSD has a hard time giving up his "trophy" - especially if he thinks Charlie is going to end up with it.

We solved the problem by using three balls for fetch - the first two we throw are Tango's, then the third one Charlie's. Then Tango is quite content to keep two balls in his mouth and run up and down beside Charlie who fetches the third ball and brings it back for another throw.

Tango can't quite get three balls in his mouth at once, so he has a "swap" deal going on - when Charlie brings the ball back for another throw, Tango drops one of his balls and grabs the fresh one. We then throw the ball that Tango has dropped and the cycle begins again. Works well for us!

At the same time we have a little squishy ball that our Pomeranian uses for fetch. It gets thrown in the other direction (out of the path of the two big dogs). She is brilliant at fetch. If she drops the ball too far away, you just have to say "Smudge, where's the ball?" and she'll go and grab it and bring it back to your feet.

Pixie Lulubelle (our Chihuahua) thinks she is a princess and the rest of the dogs are crazy "Mum, if you throw that ball, you can just go and fetch it yourself!" And flounces off back into the house. :laugh: