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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Norm has been training dogs for over ten years and successfully competed with his own dogs in conformation, obedience, field, pulling, sled dog racing, and agility. Prior to joining the ARF team in April 2004, Norm owned and managed a boarding kennel for dogs. Norm is a Certified Pet Dog Trainer through the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. He has an MBA in E-Business from the University of Phoenix, and a BS in Electrical Engineering.
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2/13/2006
We have an 18-month old male goldendoodle who has become obsessed with balls when he goes to the dog run. If he gets a hold of a ball at the dog run, he will not play with the other dogs - he just lies down and chews on the ball. When I try to get the ball from him (either to get him to run around or because the owner wants it back), he barks at me (while still holding the ball in his mouth - it's quite a feat) and runs away. I used to be able to get him to drop it by offering him a really good treat, but even that no longer works. Any advice on how to break this habit would be greatly appreciated. (eolsen2005, New York)
I would recommend we manage, keep it simple, and use the ball as a motivator.
I would first keep the dog from accessing any free tennis balls by managing his environment such that he can not get tennis balls for free. The tennis balls should only come out and be available when you are there to work with your dog. Believe it or not his obsession of the ball is not all bad; it can be a very useful motivational tool/reward.
I would of course spend some time trying to help him over come his potential possession aggression. One way to do this is to trade hi
m a ball and a treat for the ball in his mouth. Make giving up the ball a big fun game with lots of praise and reward. At first you might just try putting you fingers on it without taking it. Build up the trust, and then later try simply trading a ball for a ball and a treat. Doing this should keep it valuable and lower the potential to aggress over the ball. You can also give him balls on a rope that you can of course take back without reaching for his mouth area. I would work a lot on solving this problem before trying to use it as a reward/motivator.
You can use the ball as a reward/motivator. Earlier I mentioned that your dog should not have free access to tennis balls. We simply are applying the concept of “Nothing In Life is For Free or NILFF.” Doing this now makes the resource scarce and your dog should be more than willing to work for access to the ball. You can then ask your dog to perform a sit or down for access to the tennis ball, “who needs food when you have a ball possessed dog.” Many agility dogs work 3 times as hard for access to a toy/play over that of a treat/food reward. The ball and play can be a very powerful motivator; you simply need to harness its power and reward with it when your dog performs.
Norm coordinates the classes for canines and the people who love them at ARF’s 3,000 square-foot training pavilion and outdoor training pavilion. In addition to a series of six classes for new adoption families featuring basic obedience, ARF offers classes in agility, conformation, freestyle, advanced obedience and other ways to spend quality time with dogs.
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