On Feb 24, 10:48 am, montana wildhack
wrote:

I disagree. It is the tortured look of the dog that makes the trick
worthwhile, not a fancy finish.

But he's not all that tortured by it either. He's just not that food
motivated. The kind of stuff I've been using (IOW, large enough that
he could find it quickly if he dropped it, and not spend the next 10
minutes searching for it; the good stuff he loves, has to be given in
tiny quantities), he's 'meh' about. You can clearly tell that he's
humoring the crazy human.

Suja

on Sun, 25 Feb 2007 13:45:46 GMT, montana wildhack
wrote:

We don't let the dog have the treat if it's dropped. Ditto with
teaching "catch."

That idea just dawned on my last night when working on "catch" with Roxy.
D'oh!

No progress, but a better chance of it now.

--
Lynne

on Sun, 25 Feb 2007 14:39:48 GMT, Lynne
wrote:

my

and that's how they say "me" in Kentucky.

(Actually, it's closer to muyee)

--
Lynne

On Feb 25, 8:45 am, montana wildhack
wrote:

We don't let the dog have the treat if it's dropped. Ditto with
teaching "catch."

He'd be happy to walk off (or otherwise not cooperate) if there isn't
sufficient motivation for him to stay. Then of course, you'd lose the
trick entirely.

I tried for a very long time to get him to be better at catching
stuff. Tried all sorts of stuff, including dropping treats into his
mouths from ridiculously short distances, in an attempt to build it
up. Never achieved anything remotely resembling consistancy, even
with really short distances. About the only thing that seemed to help
was lots and lots (and lots and lots) of practice. With the
limitations in his caloric intake, there just wasn't enough bandwidth
to practice as much was needed to get anywhere close to perfection.
Yes, we practiced with kibble; no, there isn't enough kibble in his
diet to get enough practice in. A few weeks of breakfast/dinners
later, I gave up.

Pan is quite good at catching stuff. I can throw just about any way I
want ( to the sides, way high, up and over), and she'll get it if it
is physically possible. Some things, I don't do anymore, because she
can be reckless when there is food involved.

Suja

"Suja" wrote in
:

It was easy to teach Khan to balance the treat on his nose. The
flipping/catching is completely beyond him; he'd really rather just
drop his head, have it fall on the ground and pick it up. That's
where I gave up. That trick is no good without a jazzy finish.


Khan sounds like a dog after my own heart.

--
Catherine
& Zoe the cockerchow
& Queenie the black gold retriever
& Max the pomeranian
& Rosalie the calico cat

Lynne wrote in
m:

It'll be interesting to see how my pup will be. I've read that some
retrievers just aren't naturally into retrieving, and I know my
breeder is going to pick the male with the best show potential not
retrieving, because he is hoping to show him. My Shelties were not
natural retrievers, either, but it didn't take me long with either one
of them to get them fetching and catching. Roxy's been a tough case
on catching (but she'll retrieve for HOURS).


My retriever mix is the least retrieverish of the bunch. She just isn't
interested.

Zoe will fetch 3 times in a row. After that she settles down to chew on
the item.

It is Max the Pomeranian who loves to chase and fetch and leap up after
the ball. And a young friend of mine was the one to discover this, as my
2 other dogs were so uninterested that I hadn't even TRIED throwing a
ball for Max. I felt so guilty when I found out that he loved it, but now
we do it every day, so hopefully that's making it up to him.

[This post brought to you by the Pro-Pomeranian League of Lynne's
Daughter and Myself.]

--
Catherine
& Zoe the cockerchow
& Queenie the black gold retriever
& Max the pomeranian
& Rosalie the calico cat

on Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:49:08 GMT, ceb wrote:

I felt so guilty when I found out that he loved it, but now
we do it every day, so hopefully that's making it up to him.

It's a good thing dogs don't dwell on the past.

[This post brought to you by the Pro-Pomeranian League of Lynne's
Daughter and Myself.]

HOW MUCH IS SHE PAYING YOU??

--
Lynne

"ceb" wrote in message
...
Zoe will fetch 3 times in a row. After that she settles down to chew on
the item.

This is Spenser. Three times. If you throw it after that, he looks at you
and says (and this is very clear if you speak Schnauzer) "If you want it,
why do you keep throwing it away?"

Sassy gets very excited. But she may or may not notice if you throw
something. IF she notices (or if Spenser has been getting attention for
bringing it back) then she'll run (bounce) and POUNCE on it - both paws!
And then she'll look back at you and grin. I think she has actually carried
a toy back to us less than half a dozen times.

And if someone could explain this to me............
Spenser also will carefully choose a toy from the toy basket, bring it to
you, toss it to you and then look at you expectantly. You would probably
think this means that he wants you to throw the toy. Or pick it up and play
with him with it. If you try either of those things he will stare at you as
if you are the stupidest person on the face of the earth. If you either do
nothing or try one of the above, he will go back to the toy basket and try
another toy.

If he comes out of the basket, swinging the toy from his mouth or prancing,
THEN he wants to play either keepaway or tug or wrestle. But this other
thing? We've tried treating it like a present, saying Thank You and holding
it. Sometimes he just sighs and sometimes he gently pulls it out of our
hands and tosses it back to us.

I'd like to play the game with him but I'm clearly not getting the concept.
Any ideas?

Judy

"Judy" wrote in
:

I'd like to play the game with him but I'm clearly not getting the
concept. Any ideas?


Yes. He is playing a joke on you. You should laugh and tell him what a
silly boy he is, or some such.

Zoe plays tricks on me all the time, so I recognize this behavior. And as
you know, I had a schnauzer when I was growing up, so I know their clever
little ways.

--
Catherine
& Zoe the cockerchow
& Queenie the black gold retriever
& Max the pomeranian
& Rosalie the calico cat

"Judy" wrote in
:

This is Spenser. Three times. If you throw it after that, he looks
at you and says (and this is very clear if you speak Schnauzer) "If
you want it, why do you keep throwing it away?"


I know that look. Zoe is exactly the same. She often seems to me to have
a lot of terrier temperament. Or it could just be the "smart, stubborn
dog" thing.

--
Catherine
& Zoe the cockerchow
& Queenie the black gold retriever
& Max the pomeranian
& Rosalie the calico cat