How do you teach them to bring an item to you?

[Luvs]

I have been trying to teach Akasha to bring me different items. Mainly whatever is in her mouth lol. When I tell her to *bring* she will head toward me with whatever it is she may have at the time but she drops it right before she reaches me. How do I teach her to hold it until she gets to me and I take it from her? I am not sure what i am doing wrong. I will try and explain what I am doing and hopefully someone can tell me where I have gone wrong.
For example when I see her playing with something she isn't supposed to have or when I throw a toy for her, I tell her to *bring* and she will immediately head towards me with whatever it is she may have. If for some reason she doesn't come towards me I will run backwards calling her and that always gets her headed my way. I immediately start to praise as soon as she heads my way. Just before she gets to me she drops the item and then sits in front of me waiting for her reward.
My question is, do I reward her even if she hasn't brought it all the way to me? How do I get her to bring it all the way to me and hold it until I take it from her?

[damp]

Try this:

Have your dog in front of you. Offer her a toy and give your retrieve command (eventually put your hand under her jaws) and praise. Reward her for carrying the toy for some few second with a tug play (no food). If she drops it… don’t pick it up for her, kick it and keep it “alive” and again praise the second she catches it and play.
She will soon find out, the fun happens in front of you. As she makes progress let her sit a few second before you start the play. Then increase the time and go away and return and play again. First then you start to throw the toy.

[k&s]

sounds like she has the 'bring' part down, but needs to learn 'hold'. Perhaps if you break it into a separate exercise it will help? I had to do this with one of mine, who was good with bring but would drop the item. If he held it for a second I would say 'hold' and grab it before he could drop it (then give a treat). Gradually we worked up to a longer time. Good luck!

[jayneliz]

Have you taught the "Hold" command? Online, you in front of dog, dog is offered toy. Dog takes toy in mouth. "Hold" for a couple seconds and release with big fuss. Gradually work up to longer times, holding the toy. Keep it fun, kick the toy if she drops it, ("I'm gonna GET that toy - it's mine now!") and go back to square one, holding for a few seconds at a time. Key = make her WANT to hold the toy, because it's fun to. Work up to heeling while holding (start small, one step and release). Eventually you can work this into 'bring' by stepping backwards, etc. Remember to insitute 'leave it' or 'drop it' so dog knows when to release and doens't get into the habit of dropping toy when she reaches you without being told to.

Jayne May

[Luvs]

I think you guys are right and I need to break it down and work on the hold seperately. I will start doing as you suggested and hopefully she will get it down.
Thank you for your help:D ;)

[nolove316]

Ok my boy Kain will bring the toy back to me but will not drop it for anything. How do i get him to drop it?

If i goto grab it from him he takes off running. How do i stop him from running from me.

He is not doing that well with the stay command the sit command he has down.

Any ideas would be great.



THANK YOU

[Wrath]

Kain has found an interesting and fun game, it's called chase. If you don't want to fall into this trap, when he runs off with something, don't go after him. Just completely ignore him and go do something else. When puppy sees that running off with said item doesn't ellicit a chase, he'll either drop it, or plop down and start chewing on it. This might mean sacrificing whatever you're trying to get from him in the first place, so obviously you'd want to do your best to keep anything dangerous or valuable out of reach.

More importanting, you can start working on exchanging. The easiest to do is to exchange whatever he's got for at treat. Say "drop" or "give" and offer the treat. 99% of the time, it'll get dropped. Do this a couple of times to establish that giving things up means they get something better in exchange, then start requesting the behavior without showing the treat first. When he can give it up reliably, start phasing out the food reward...give a treat every 5 times, every 10 times, every so often. This can become a different game, where you can exchange one toy for another.

[nolove316]

Ok thanks Wrath i will try that and get back to you and let you know how its going.

[jayneliz]

You may also want to keep the dog on a long line, and eliminate the chance for a chase while teaching 'drop it' or 'leave it'.

Jayne May

[Wrath]

Playing chase in itself is also not a bad thing, it's great exercise for the dogs and us as well. We play chase with our dogs all the time, but the key difference is we instigate it. We start off by creeping at them saying "I'm gonna get you" and they hapily bound up and dash off. In that way, chase has become a conditioned behavior and we haven't had problems with them stealing things and running off...perhaps we're just lucky.

[mercedes]

Mercedes didn't even learn to bring things to me. The first time I threw a ball for her she brought it right back to me. She has never run off with anything I tell her to bring. I also taught her to "drop" whatever she has. Guess I got lucky!

[nolove316]

Oh ok so its not a bad thing huh if i chase him while he has a ball or a bone?

I understand the exersice thing but later on down the line will it be a problem?

[Luvs]

Akasha absolutely loves to be chased by anyone. Her brother and our two small dogs are always chasing her around the house. She usually has something in her mouth and is playing keep away from them. It is alot of fun to watch

I don't ever chase Akasha. I don't want her to get into the habit of running from me. We do play chase but it is always her chasing me. She got into a really bad habit of when she got loose she would run over to the neighbors house. I started running around the side of the house where she couldn't see me and she would come running to find me. I am afraid if I chase her that she will run from me instead of towards me when she gets loose;) Maybe when she is a little bit older and more trustworthy I can chase her:D

[Wrath]

The best way of proofing against that might be to add a cue to the game, something like "I'm gonna get you" and wiggling fingers. Chase only happens after the cue and any other time the dog runs from you it's ignored. Maybe making it something that happens after recall as well. Call the dog to you, give the cue for chase, then have a short bout of chase. Stop and call the dog and repeat ad naseum. Could be a great way to work on recall if playing chase is a strong motivator.