Dog Training *drop it*

Renno123

Hi, I have a young dog around 2 years old. I have him for a year now and ive been training him on an on going basis. the one problem i have is, how do i train him to drop his ball. ive trained all my other dogs before but he is exceptionally stubborn. his reward/ currency is his ball, not food. his grip is very strong too so its a struggle to get it off him, where as that's the game for him.
any tips ?

sotisme

Renno123 wrote: »

Hi, I have a young dog around 2 years old. I have him for a year now and ive been training him on an on going basis. the one problem i have is, how do i train him to drop his ball. ive trained all my other dogs before but he is exceptionally stubborn. his reward/ currency is his ball, not food. his grip is very strong too so its a struggle to get it off him, where as that's the game for him.
any tips ?

Handfeed him a treat, he won't be able to eat it without dropping the ball. As soon as he drops it make a huge fuss and give him another treat. Say 'Drop it, good boy!' Ect.

Should do the trick

Edit: just seen where you said his reward is not food, will he choose the ball over a treat?

ISDW

Two balls, if he won't drop the ball for a treat, just swap one ball for the other.

**Vai**

ISDW wrote: »

Two balls, if he won't drop the ball for a treat, just swap one ball for the other.

This also works for teaching a dog how to play football. Too much time on my hands :-)

DamagedTrax

firstly im not advocating dominance theory BUT after trying to train a staffie to drop (not the easiest job in the world), ive added a small bit of dominance into the equation.

everytime she did something wrong i let a low soft growl at her. eventually she learned that the growl meant i was serious. now if she doesnt drop, i growl and she lets go immediatly.

i must stress that i also growl (as she does) when we're playing rough. so she never really sees a growl as a threat but she's able to figure out what it means from the situation.

as usual with dog training YMMV.

**Vai**

DamagedTrax wrote: »

firstly im not advocating dominance theory BUT

No offence but this made me laugh. Im not advocating dominance but I use it and it works; is basically what you said. People are so afraid to admit it can work if used properly because they might get tarred with the same brush as people who beat dogs.

tk123

Have you tried using a clicker OP for marking good behaviour? When I trained my dog to drop I showed him a treat and when he dropped the ball clicked and have him the treat and lots of praise.

EDIT - as for growling lol. You're making a noise that you think is a growl but why would your dog think it's a growl if it's coming from you - a non-dog - I know my dog wouldn't be bothered! You could be saying 'bananas' every time she does something bold and it'd have the safe effect imo if you were consistent - the same way I say 'too bad' or some people say no / enough etc

**Vai**

For this particular dog, as its been described, ISDW gave you the perfect solution OP. If that doesnt work, as tk123 mentioned clickers, a friend of mine used clicker training and it seems to work too. I know nothing much about it myself though.
My GS would turn her nose up at a steak when theres a ball involved so I feel your pain. Never had trouble getting her to leave anything though because we implemented the "leave" command very early luckily enough.

tk123

**Vai** wrote: »

h.
My GS would turn her nose up at a steak when theres a ball involved so I feel your pain. .

Ah then you just need a special ball only for training! If you dog doesn't demolish balls I'd recommend an orbee ball - they smell minty which my guy loves lol :pac:

Whispered

We use another ball with Harley and he usually drops the first one, unless he's tired and doesn't want to go chasing again.

With Phoe we use food, he's a foodie little staffy and will happily drop ANYTHING for a treat.

DamagedTrax, what you're doing is probably not anything to do with dominance, you've given her a cue which says you're serious, like TK123 said, that cue could be bananas. Your growl itself isn't making her drop, the fact you have cued "I'm serious this time" is. We have similar done, without even realising at the time. If we change our tone of voice they know we're serious. Dominance theorists might say because we lower our voice we're simulating a growl, in fact, all we're doing is giving them their "last warning" before ending the game and they'd react similarly if our last warning was us standing on our heads!

OP, I'd recommend starting with something he doesn't love as much, like a tug rope or other toy. When you have a good "drop" taught with things of lesser value, you can start doing it with the ball. Make sure the treats are a lot better for the ball, and it might be best to start when he's already tired playing with it.

Renno123

great, ill start with using 2 balls. he would not drop a ball for any piece of food :D:p
i have a clicker, i have used it for training everything else. he thinks its great except my older dog thinks its terrifying :rolleyes:
thanks guys

Assassins Creed

As isdw said, use another ball. I find the ones with the rope attached are best. you dont have to throw it, just make a bigger fuss with it, possibly introduce tugging with it. Alternate with the other ball and so forth, introduce a command such as out when the dog lets go of whichever ball is in the mouth. This way your teaching the dog a command to release the ball and also it has a far greater reward, the follow up ball with all the fuss.

eirator

I really don't see the 2 balls working with every dog. I've a very large dog and with a bit of effort he'll carry 4 balls around in his mouth and not want to drop any of them.

I haven't fully cracked the problem but I've found sticking to one ball works better and I make him heel, sit then down before taking the ball away. Once he's down he often drops the ball between his paws to guard his toy and its at that point that another toy (another ball is OK at this stage but can't be visible before this point) will distract him while I take the first ball. Obviously I include the word drop just before he drops the ball naturally. Its a work in progress but the up side is we've practiced down so often that he will now do it on command at any distance.

Edit> That doesn't quite read the way I wanted, the issue for me is that if 2 balls are out at the same time then the dog won't drop the first. A second ball is only any use in my case to distract the dog after the first ball has already been dropped.

Whispered

eirator wrote: »

I really don't see the 2 balls working with every dog. I've a very large dog and with a bit of effort he'll carry 4 balls around in his mouth and not want to drop any of them.

Ours does the same, 3 balls, a tug rope and a plastic bottle is his record so far .

He only gets the second when he drops the first so we use it like a food treat - drop and you get something nice. Only this time the nice thing is another ball.

fatmammycat

I've trained my dog to drop his squeaky by absolutely refusing to play with it unless he gives it back. His favourite thing in the world is finding the damn thing after I've hidden it, but on bringing it back he's loathe to part with it again and if I try take it it turns into a game of tug, his second favourite game, so win win for him. So I do absolutely nothing ( stand, arms folded, no interaction boring) until he drops it and then I make a big YAY fuss out of that: if he lets me pick it up- without snatching it and galloping off again sigh– I then play tug with him. He's not perfect, but he's right up there with 8/10 now for dropping.

fatmammycat

Whispered wrote: »

Ours does the same, 3 balls, a tug rope and a plastic bottle is his record so far .
.

Heh, awesome.

Whispered

fatmammycat wrote: »

Heh, awesome.

In fairness it didn't last long, and when one went it was like everything exploded out of is mouth. Doesn't stop him trying again though.