Dumbell

[Carol Burke]

I am trying to train my Bonnie for her CDX and I need some help. She will not hold the dumbell. I can put up to her mouth and she will take it, but she will not reach for it. I had this same problem with her father, but he finally gave in after much persistence and got his CDX. She does all the exercises except any involving the dumbell. HELP!!!

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Carol
Darrlburg Rottweilers

[frontierrots]

A great many traditional method trainers have started using the clicker method for retrieve exercises. This works very well with a high reliability rate. A good book to start with is The Clicked Retrieve b Lana Mitchell

Using a method very similar to Lana's I taught a 5 month old Rott rescue a very reliable and accurate dumbell fetch and retrieve to front. The toughest part was getting her to understand that I wanted her to hold it in her mouth and sit in front of me til I took it but we managed to get past that hurdle and she was doing 30' retrieves with an extra large dumbell with ease!

Using clicker for 1 exercise will NOT interfere with whatever method you are using for all else

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Diane
Frontier Rottweilers & Shiba Inu and
Volunteer with NorthEast Rottweiler Rescue & Referral http://www.rottrescue.org

[WorkinDogz]

Carol,

Make a game of it. Build drive for the dumbell by making it (in a very animated way) YOURS and SHE can't have it. (Tieing her out; staying just out of her reach...kicking it around; playing with it..making her desire build)

You can do the same off-lead. Play "keep away" by teasing her with it but don't let her bite it until her drive is high; and then kinda play tug and push it into her lightly. It should make her push the dumbell into you to keep the game going.

Some dogs are naturals and have a ton of drive for the dumbell; others you have to work with a bit more.

I play this "It's mine" dumbell game with all of my dogs before even teaching the dumbell, regardless of their drive for it.

[helga]

Interesting topic, but for more imput, I'm moving it to "Training."