I had two separate clients talking about playing fetch with their dogs today. They both have the issue that their dog won’t let the ball go or let them get it to throw again. Both dogs also have an issue with being easily aroused (read that however you want including “wow that dog is a crackhead”)
This led to a lovely conversation about how to teach a dog to drop the ball AND how to use those games to teach dogs how to bring their arousal down more quickly (I like to call it resilience but I’m sure someone would have a more accurate term). One of my clients also said they didn’t have that “intuition” that I have for knowing when to do what. Interestingly enough, I wouldn’t say it’s intuition. I would say it’s protocols.
This led to me explaining my “intuition” as a flow chart of lots of little protocols.
Here’s what I mean by that:
Q1: Can your dog drop the ball on cue?
No (lets introduce protocols to teach drop it)
Yes leads to another question.
Q2: Can your dog sit after they drop the ball? no/yes
Q3: Can your dog allow you to pick up said dropped ball? no/yes
Each of those questions, and all the questions that would come after, lead to a particular protocol. It’s not intuition. I just have a huge rolodex of solutions and protocols in my head that I’m so fluent in, that I’m constantly asking the question “can this dog do this?” If they can, I have a training plan either in my head or written down that tells me what to do next. If not, I have a protocol for that too.
Think about what you do on a daily basis. You don’t have to think about what comes next if a problem arises. That bump in the road or road block is just an opportunity to try something else. Your job is just a compilation of skills you learned over years, right? I have just been doing it for a long time so I’ve had to learn a lot of protocols.
This brought up another concept. It’s called splitting. When creating protocols and training plans, we break big behaviors down into tiny little steps. Those little steps are mini-goals that are easy and finite. That reduces frustration for the human handler and their dog. I don’t know about you but if i’m trying to learn something new and I don’t feel successful throughout the learning process I get frustrated, angry and tend to give up. Why would we ask our dog to go through that? They don’t understand long term goals. They thrive on little wins!
Take the playing fetch mentioned earlier. (this leads to a whole separate conversation about how playing fetch can help a dog learn to slow down and recover from high arousal – I call it resilience)
The conversation went like this.
“Can you help teach my dog to drop the ball when we’re playing fetch? He will only drop it if I have another ball and even that’s questionable.”
Ooohhh yes!! I love this and it totally excites me to explain what to do! I LOVE breaking this stuff down. Yes, I know I’m a weirdo.
So, here we go.
- Will your dog drop the ball when you show the 2nd ball? Start saying “drop it” when you show the 2nd ball. Mark the instant your dog drops the first ball and immediately reward with throwing the 2nd. Repeat this step until you feel like your dog may be associating the phrase “drop it” with tossing the 2nd ball. Then test the cue. Keep the 2nd ball behind your back. When your dog returns with the 1st ball, say “drop it” to see what happens. This is technically a cue transfer. If your dog drops the ball, mark the behavior and then throw the hidden ball!
- Introduce a stationary behavior/second behavior to the game. Ask for the drop, then ask for a sit. Mark the sit and throw the spare ball. When this is easy we’ll start working towards picking up the dropped ball.
- If your dog has a good stay feel free to include it in this game.
- If not, train the stay in a different environment without the ball to eliminate frustration with you and your dogs learning process
- If they DO have a good stay, cue stay and look for signs of relaxation before throwing the next ball. This is not a complete list.
- Engagement
- Blinking eyes
- Taking a breath
- Exhaling
- Laying down
- Closing their mouth
- Cue the drop/sit/stay combination and move one foot towards the dropped ball. If your dog doesn’t move towards the dropped ball but notices your movement, mark them NOT moving to steal the ball back and throw the 2nd ball.
- If your dog can NOT control themselves with a minor movement toward the ball we want to build duration of waiting for the second ball to be thrown. This is where we can really build some calm.
- Wait for your dog to offer ANY behavior other than flinching or trying to steal the ball back (see 3b above for what that looks like)
- Mark the dog offering anything other than moving toward the ball and throw the spare
- When you can point a toe at the dropped ball without your dog flinching to steal it back, take ONE step towards the ball. Then 1 ½ step, then 2 then 2 ½ etc.
- If your dog breaks the stay or flinches toward the dropped ball take steps back to your starting point and start over. We tend to get greedy as humans. Look at that break in position as just that. We asked for too much too quickly. Go back to your most recent success and reward that a few more times (no more than 4) and then stop playing fetch.
- When you can walk all the way to the dropped ball without your dog stealing it back, can you pick it up? If yes, mark the pick up. If NOT
- While standing, gesture toward the dropped ball with an empty hand but don’t bend down/over toward it. Mark your dog not moving and throw the spare ball.
- Gesture and drop your chin to start looking at the dropped ball. Mark and reward with the spare ball
- Gesture, drop your chin and bend slightly toward the dropped ball. Mark and reward with the spare ball
- Continue this until you can
- Have your hand just above the dropped ball
- Touch the ball with fingertips
- Touch the ball with your open hand
- Close your hand on the ball
- Then we have to stand back up so let’s reverse that picking up motion.
- Close your hand on the ball
- Lift your head to begin standing up
- Bring the ball close to your body
- Raise your shoulders
- Lift your body from the hips
- Raise your throwing arm
- Throw the ball
That’s a lot of steps right? Man that sounds annoying. That sounds like it’ll take FOREVER!
BUT…..breaking everything down into tiny little games and only trying to get one step ahead instead of jumping all the way to the end is a great way to feel like a rock star and to not frustrate your dog. Go for the little wins.
If you want to learn more about how this game can be used more in depth to build a more resilient/relaxed dog read “fetch for focus and calm”. (link to come soon)
-Shanthi Steddum CPDT-KA