Ball/stick Fetch Crazy?

[Lexi-Taj]

I have a pug who is obsessed with tug, she loves the fetch part but moreso the game of wrestling/tugging it from her first. If you hide all her toys she will bring some random item she finds and nudge you on leg, which is her "I want to play" signal.

Yesterday, it was this:

I find distracting her is the only thing that works, either by re-directing her to play with our other dog, or giving her a kong or treat that takes a long time, but otherwise she doesn't have an off-switch.

It is crazy. Fetch obsession. Your pug is so sweet. Taj is the same, you hide his toys and he will bring something else. He also isn't distracted by other dogs or treats. He can have another dog jumping all over him and he still drops things on you to play with.

This is our Taj boy!

[Lexi-Taj]

I have a pug who is obsessed with tug, she loves the fetch part but moreso the game of wrestling/tugging it from her first. If you hide all her toys she will bring some random item she finds and nudge you on leg, which is her "I want to play" signal.

Yesterday, it was this:

I find distracting her is the only thing that works, either by re-directing her to play with our other dog, or giving her a kong or treat that takes a long time, but otherwise she doesn't have an off-switch.

It is crazy. Fetch obsession. Your pug is so sweet. Taj is the same, you hide his toys and he will bring something else. He also isn't distracted by other dogs or treats. He can have another dog jumping all over him and he still drops things on you to play with.

This is our Taj boy!

[Lexi-Taj]

haha another one! I was in the same boat as you - a dog whose motivation to play used to drive me nuts, but I have come to realise it's actually a really great quality for a dog to have.

The motivation to play fetch and tug is highly valued by anyone training working dogs - if you control his most valued activity, the dog is putty in your hands - he'll do anything you ask of him to get you to play. Trainers of customs dogs, police dogs, guide dogs (no surprise a lab has this drive) and all manner of other working/competition dogs are all looking for dogs with a high drive for playing with toys, because these dogs are so motivated by the promise of a game as a reward for performing their work, that they will work as hard as they can, for as long as they can.

I'd recommend having a look at some of Michael Ellis' youtube videos, he may give you some ideas on how to utilise your dog's drive to work for you rather than just annoy you. The level of drive your dog has can be a wonderful thing.

Here's one of his longer lectures that covers his entire philosophy of dog training, it's 70 minutes long, so it's pretty comprehensive, there are also numerous shorter clips, all well worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe0-oqqoXvw

Im really looking forward to watching the vid and getting some tips. Thank you for the suggestion, I cant wait to see how I can make Taj's motivation work for training

[Guest Clover]

We have a ball/fetch obsessed dog too, if she's being a pest we just put away all her balls/toys so she can't torture people with them.

We put the ball away, he finds a stick. We put the stick away, he finds a peg. We put the peg away, he finds some grass or a rock or a bit of paper.... It just keeps going :)

Oh I can sympathise. My young BC x is obssesed. She will literally bring me everything, if I ignore her she will throw whatever she has at me. I have begun using it to my advantage and making her work for the game.

[Vickie]

I have a bunch of fetch obsessed dogs here. I do 3 things

Use their games for training. I notice if I have been slack with training as the fetch requests increase :)

I teach them "That'll do". I have a hanging pot on my back deck. Every time they bring me something (and i cant/dont want to play) I say that'll do, stand up & put the object in the pot. Initially i might do it for 40+ minutes. The older dogs now understand this...the younger ones still need some work . However this command never seems to work for visitors, so...

I crate or pen them so they don't drive visitors crazy.

[BC Crazy]

Yes I have the same problem Vickie when visitors arrive

Sonny is straight over to them with what ever he can find

could be anything from a ball to a stick 1mm long, pestering

them to throw it. My "finish" command falls on deaf ears then.

I usually end up putting him outside for a few minutes or giving

him something else to do. He does really love having people over

so he learning very quickly if he wants to see our visitors he has

he mustn't annoy them with his 'go find' game :)

Edited January 4, 2013 by BC Crazy

[RiverStar-Aura]

It is crazy. Fetch obsession. Your pug is so sweet. Taj is the same, you hide his toys and he will bring something else. He also isn't distracted by other dogs or treats. He can have another dog jumping all over him and he still drops things on you to play with.

This is our Taj boy!

Taj is a gorgeous boy and sounds exactly like my beagle JRT cross. He's a nutso fetcher too, however, he doesn't go as far as sticks -- only toys. I found the best way to curb his habit is to give him a toy box. That way, I control his play and at the end of each game, the toy goes back into the box until next time. He still has toys around the backyard, ones he has no interest in fetching, but I've found that by keeping his favourite fetch toys "locked up", his interest in fetch time is much more motivated and revved up once the toy comes out of the box.

Zeus won't quit playing fetch because every time I pick the toy up he gets excited and bounces around as if saying "ooo boy, she's throwing my toy" but once I pick it up and say "ok, no more" and put the toy away, he'll calm down. If I didn't, he'd keep going to beyond exhaustion.

Taj also seems to have that gorgeous, keen and highly intelligent spark in his eyes. You have a VERY smart dog here. To wear him out he'll need lots of brain work through training sessions -- Zeus is exactly the same and as such, he has a huge trick list. Try adding other tricks such as playing dead, spinning, beg, crawl, and even leg weaving. Anything to stimulate his brain.

I'm currently teaching Zeus to recognise words for certain treats -- we're working on "yoghurt" at the moment. I put a selection of treats out and allow him only to sniff them, then I say "yoghurt" and feed him the yoghurt drop. Five minutes later I say yoghurt and he's actively starting to seek the yoghurt drop out himself. I might work on "Greenie" next!!!

[Erny]

Work your dog's mind. Get him to work for the reward of retrieve. And train in such a way that he understands not only the rules, but the choice of item for retrieval is yours. It sounds to me as though your dog has had a reasonable dose of reinforcement for choosing the item himself, and that with a bit of effort and a lot of persistence, when the game will start, so expect re-training to take a while.

Start training so that there is an "on" switch and an "off" switch and never play the game unless the "on" switch (command) is given. But work - lots of mentally stimulating stuff such as those tricks and obedience responses (and new/extended ones to make it more mentally challenging) in between each retrieve. And YOU choose the item - stick to one item only to begin with, until he gets the idea.

Edited January 4, 2013 by Erny

[Lexi-Taj]

Thank you for everyone's responses... They have been very helpful, it's great to see other ideas for re-training/training and what to do regarding Taj's fetch obsession.

I'm looking forward to having some training sessions where Taj can learn some new tricks/commands to exercise his brain, I'll step up the exercise also and do th 6.5k's twice a day morning and night.

Funnily enough today when he dropped a ball at my feet (hanging out washing) I put it up on back deck and said 'no more', he repeated it with a peg, again I put it up with a 'no more' he stopped, looked at me and sat down.... For a whole 5 minutes!!!!!! Then he went and found a piece of bark *facepalm* and was his usual persistent self.....

Although I didn't throw the bark, I did once finished hanging, play fetch for a little while. When done i said 'no more' and put the ball up again. Fingers crossed!

I chose the 'no more' as it was the first thing that came to mind, does anyone else have a better suggestion?

Also what tricks should I start teaching Taj?

[huski]

I think no more is a good command, especially if it comes naturally to you. It doesn't really matter what words you use, I say 'enough' to indicate a game is over, but again the word you choose is really irrelevant.

I understand the excitement you feel when your dog chills out of their own accord for a minute or longer - it is quite exciting when you have a 'go go go all the time' dog :laugh:

I think management is an important part of owning any dog, and with some dogs the management level required is always going to be higher. My young Mal is super friendly with people and is also super tug and ball driven (and really anything driven) but generally when guests are over I put her away, as she's naturally too full on for most people even when she's being calm. It's the trade off you have for having a super dog, I think :)