Retrieve training of a young malinois. Using positive stimuls

Teaching a dog to take an object.

        

        

        Retrieve or Rapport d’objet lance – this is how the exercise is called in the FCI Rules of Mondioring. However, this skill is considered as necessary in many dogs competitions, tests and exams.  Usually  dog masters, trying to teach a dog this exercise, meet with three main difficulties:  the dog rushes  to catch object the same moment the object is thrown; the dog runs to the object but doesn’t take it; and the dog takes the object and happily runs with him far from the master.

        There are many methodics  how to teach a dog to fulfill the command “apport” and to bring back the thrown object. The most wildly spread mistake is to try to teach a dog to carry out the whole exercise from the very beginning.  It rarely gives fruitful results.

       It seems more effective to divide the exercise into several parts and to help your dog learn it step by step.

      How to teach a dog to take the object? Why he or she will do it?  The dog doesn’t see any  obvious reason for taking it and doesn’t understand why he/she should do it. Many dog owners begin with pushing the object into dog’s mouth and holding the mouth for some time. But usually the dog lets the object fall down the moment his/her owner takes hands away from the mouth as well as the object. Some instructors even fix the dog for not letting him/her run away or turn the head. To my mind the only obvious result is that the dog gets a stress and loses any wish to carry out the exercise.

       It seems much more effective to use positive motivation and increase dog’s interest in the exercise through something that he/she enjoys – tips, playing with a ball, biting a toy, etc. For each dog different stimuls should be chosen.

The key figure of the video is young malinois of working line who likes to bite the toy. So it helped easily to  teach him to take the object. Even showing the toy was a stimul for him to take the object as he knew that he would be awarded and enjoyed the exercise. Do not forget to give command “apport” the moment you suggest your dog to take the object J