Flying Poodles

Learning to retrieve…

I have spent years trying to teach my dogs a basic dog-park tennis ball retrieve. I’ve thrown the ball, then traipsed into the bushes after it a zillion times. Elly grabs the ball and runs off with it; Dancer ignores it. Or at least she used to.

When I won the raffle basket a few weeks ago, it came with two of those squeaky tennis balls. I had them on my desk so that I’d remember to give them to someone else. A few days ago, Dancer started carrying one of them around, so I put it in my pocket to go with me to barn time today.

I just took Dancer with me today, because Elly seemed to be a bit stiff from yesterday’s adventures. When we got to the barn today, I threw the ball in the door and Dancer went after it, picked it up, and brought it back to me. So I gave her a piece of agility-training steak. I signaled a jump and threw the ball as she went over it. She ran after it, then brought it back and dropped it at my feet. I gave her a piece of steak.

Then I signaled the weaves, clicked the last pole, threw the ball… and she got the ball, brought it back to me, and dropped it in my hand. Two pieces of steak.

I’d planned a solid half-hour of practice today–weave entries, contacts, short sequences, a little teeter work.

I kept on rewarding her obstacles with a ball toss; I got fifteen minutes of such high-energy training that I got everything done in fifteen minutes. Her weaves were fast and furious. Her contacts were great. She did TWO FULL HEIGHT TEETERS.

Oh, and she now has a rock-solid ball retrieve.