Quick Bumper Session
I worked from home and took advantage of the semi-nice weather and the fact that it was still light out and went out and threw some bumpers for Riot. I really need to get this dog through CC and FF, but I’ve yet to figure out how to work it into my schedule. This is only the second time we’ve been out with bumpers this year. Both sessions Riot would get within 2 to 5 feet and drop the bumper. He knows “hold” and since he obviously doesn’t have an understanding with what he’s supposed to do with the bumpers upon return, I decided to try something out today. Now remember, this is the dog that wouldn’t bring anything back for the first 6 months. So I have to remember how huge strides we’ve made.
I sat him next to me, put a bumper in his mouth and told him to hold. I told him what a good dog he was and then told him to give. Next I threw the bumper and told him to hold when he was about 6 feet away from me. He stopped, sat, and looked at me still holding the bumper. I told him here and he dropped the bumper and came to me. I put him back where he was, put the bumper back in his mouth, went back to my position, and again told him here which resulted in him hesitantly moving towards me, but with the bumper in his mouth. We repeated this a few times with very short throws — about 8 to 10 feet and I saw a light bulb go off as he started to understand what was expected of him. He got tons of praise for holding his bumper.
I now realize that I spent so much time working on getting him to bring items back, but I never taught him what was expected of him once he did. I’ve accepted the dropping of the bumper within a few feet of me because that was certainly a lot better than where we started from. Now I need to change my expectations and actually tell the dog the expectations have changed too.
I love how excited he gets when we go out and work bumpers. Even when he didn’t want to bring them back, he was always very enthusiastic.
