dropping it!

MEG126

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#1
ok seems i'm having the most trouble with basic commands. dropping the ball when we're playing fetch. she brings it back, but not all the way to me, and she doesn't drop it. or she'll lie down nearby. i figure she just likes the game of us trying to get the ball from her. whenever she gets something besides a ball, like a sock and she gets caught, she drops it really good, so she obviously knows what it means. i just want her to bring the ball back to me and drop it near where i'm standing. doesn't seem like it's too much to ask i just need to know how to let her know that's what i want her to do.

like abour five minutes ago we were playing and i threw the ball once, she brought it right back to me and sat in front of me (like she always does when she wants me to pet her), i praised her for coming back and i took it from her mouth. when i put my hand on the ball she doesn't tug back, i just have to pull gently and she gives it back. so i threw the ball again and she got it (very willingly, so i don't think she lies down because she doesn't want to play anymore) but when she came back she didn't come right to me, instead she laid down about 3 feet from me. so i got up and left, trying to let her know that if she isn't going to play by my rules then i'm not going to play.

am i doing that right or is there some other technique i can use that would be more clear to her? she loves to play those type of games with us!
 
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#2
You're doing a good job, right on the mark. It is likely, too, that when she lays down after a few trips she's telling you that she wants to rest or that she's tired of this game for awhile. Don't give in immediately; have her fetch once more unless she's just obviously tuckered. That reminds her that although you're paying attention to her happiness, you're still in charge.

You'll get a laugh out of this: the big GSD/Akita mix I had for years, Bear, would go get anything I asked him to and bring it to me. However, if I threw something and then asked him to get it, Bear would just sit there and look at me with an expression that unmistakeably said, "if you wanted it, why'd you throw it away?" Bear did NOT play fetch.
 

MEG126

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#3
aww that's so cute! lol. my friend has rottweilers and one of them (tucker) would always bring you a piece of mulch and you could try it right back into the big area of mulch and he'd race in and bring back the exact some one. i always thought that was canna humorous. powerful slober and powerful sniffers!

thanks for the advice!
 
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#4
They do some strange and funny things sometimes. Right now I'm having a time with Kharma. She's really getting gung-ho about herding (she'll be 6 months old in 3 days) and she won't let the cows anywhere near the fence around the house and she doesn't want to let them spread out and graze. In her view of Kharma's World, all the cows have to stay together! And Bimmer thinks he has to take care of her and help her. He will come back after I've called him about a half dozen times, but she doesn't even act like she hears me, and truthfully, she's so absorbed in what she's doing that she may not hear me. She comes back very pleased with herself. I've tried putting the two of them in the laundry room but that hasn't helped any with Kharma and hasn't detered Bimmer from going with her, so yesterday after their little display (after which they went haring off hunting somewhere - I looked for them all over the woods and they finally showed up as I trudged back up the hill to the house) I scolded Bimmer and locked him up in the laundry room. Kharma thought she'd avoid trouble by just not coming in, so I just shut the door on her and left her alone. She laid sat in front of the door and whined. It just about killed me to do it, but I made her sit out there for a couple of hours, then didn't pay any attention to her for the rest of the day. She's been better this morning, only moving one off the fence and not harassing the rest of the cows spread out in the front pasture. Bimmer sat down next to me. He and I had a long talk about letting Kharma get him in trouble.

Of course, Charlie totally FREAKS when he sees them go. He's never had herding dogs before these and gets angry and excited and doesn't see the pattern - all he sees is cows being chased. He completely misses the fact that they make no effort to bite or catch the cows; the dogs just want the cows to move to where the dogs think they should be. I had to remind him that we went through the exact same thing with Buffy, Shiva went through a spell where it she discovered that the cows would run from her and she didn't want to hear us call her down, and both of them went through a spell at about the same age when they didn't think they had to answer a call until it suited them.
I can see that I'm going to have a lot of work. I don't know who's going to be harder headed, the dogs or Charlie. (lol)
 

MEG126

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#5
yea penny definitely has selective hearing... we're workin on that!! :)

sometimes when we went outside to throw a football or do yardwork we'd let my collie dog, cara (we put her down about 4 years ago) come out with us (as she could be trusted to stay in the yard and not run around the neighborhood, something penny isn't so good at- as of now anyways). i can remember on several occasions i'd be playing tag with some friends so we'd all be running around and cara would always try to herd me and my brother in. it was really cute. whenever i'm flipping through pictures and i come across some of her it still makes me sad. she was a great dog and has gave penny high standards to fill!
 

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