Retrieving

[kjohnson724]

My 11 mo, Niila, loves to go outside and chase after thrown balls, but she's not good at returning the ball so that we can throw it again. Once she has it she finds it is more fun to play keep away. What do you find is the best way to work with her on bringing the ball back to us? Would working on the "come" command with her help during these play sessions? Any feedback would be great. Thanks.

[Muckdogs]

Probably the best way to get her to bring it back is to play the two ball game with her. Do a search for my posts and I think you will find where I posted how to do this. If not, let me know and I will repost.

[Rott-Wiley]

Another way is to put her on a long line (10 foot at least but a 20 foot nylon cord is better), toss the ball and when she picks it up, encourage her to bring it back to you and real in the line. Once she does bring the ball back, give her a command to give you the ball back. Give, Oust, Drop it, Leave it, or something like that. Repeat as needed.

[Luvs]

Originally posted by Muckdogs
Probably the best way to get her to bring it back is to play the two ball game with her. Do a search for my posts and I think you will find where I posted how to do this. If not, let me know and I will repost.

This is the method I used to teach Akasha and Keil to bring the ball back.
It worked great!:)

[brianbat420]

My boy was doing the same thing for a while and the way that I started to fix it was I would throw the ball/tug and he would go get it and then I would "tap"my leg twice and tell him to come here and I would not move from my spot and when he would get there I would tell him "let it go" and take the toy from him. Now if he didnt let it go or he didnt want to come over to me and give it to me then I just wouldnt do anything I would repeat the above steps untill "I got what I wanted"

Now it does take time to do it this way and I am still working on it but it seems to be working well IMO.

Just a little advice. Brian

[kjohnson724]

Thanks everyone for all of your advice. Muckdogs I will do a search and see what I can find. I guess it is going to be a matter of trying several different things and seeing what works best.