New Sheltie owner, (Sandstorm)agility ignorance

SheltieChe said:
Karen
as with anything else, you have to teach your pup to retrieve. There several things useful to teach pup- "Take" command , " go out" comand, bring it etc... if your pup completely does not understand the game start slowly and teach him parts of the whole, first " take" and then follow... what worked for me was...
Take new or his favorite toy and play with , creating a lot of excitment to attract pup's interest. Throw toy short distance ahead and show with your flat hand while saying" go get it" or whatever your comand is Che will run but wil not let me have it... so I either show him a treat and then he drops it or have 2 same toys...
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Hi- I have taught Sandstorm to "get it" (his toy), he runs to it, does not pick it up however. Ongoing I guess! The reason I thought he may not be interested in retrieving :no:is because our previous dog, a shepherd, did this in one day. I just thought Sandstorm did not have much interest in it, where as our other dog did, hard not to compare. Sandstorm is just as smart :yes:
and had the sit, stay, no quite early.
Thanks, Karen
 
Lots of treats to teach them to retrieve - first a treat for just picking up the toy and then bringing it closer. Dont throw it too far away at first. Tully has the best retrieve - she puts it in my hands, she even retrieves other dogs balls for their owners. I taught her with a lot of patience - waiting, waiting until she came back with it. You can also teach the 'get' command by throwing food first. Throw the food then say 'get' treat (or whatever word you use for treats) then use the command with toys or a ball. That way they learn to retrieve anything and later you can turn it into a trick. I can tell mine to 'get the stick', 'get the squeaky' 'get the ball' etc.
 
I would teach command "Take it" separately first... I do it by taking a toy and start playing with it like it is my best fun, of course Che want to have it too and there we go... treat after each time he takes it in his mouth...
or you could try smearing some peanut butter or rub hot dog smell on the toy and see if he retrieves it...
Che is good with retrieving except giving it back to me, so I have to have either same toy to replace first or give him treat every time he brings it back...
 
Thanks all for the tips- I appreciate it. One step at a time I guess! We also taught Sandstorm to wait for his treat untill we say okay. He does this well. We also taught him to NOT lunge at cars on a walk, and have him sit if he is barking at the car and getting too excited over it. He really is a very good dog. I just have to adjust to the fact that he is not an instant retreiver like my shepherd was, it was so easy with her. Sandstorm and I love to play chase- it is his favorite thing!!:biggrin2:
Karen
 
My last sheltie could not get enough of the ball and my two right now love it too, over every other toy. Chinook, never really had a drive for the ball when he was young, but it just came to him one day and now he is obsessed with it! You never know, Sandstorm might just 'grow' into it too! :wink2:
 
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