Presenting Work?

[chickrockguitar]

Hey guys.

Marlee likes to "go find/seek out" his Dummy when I hide etc. But I would like to teach him how to "Present" it to me. Much like gundog work. (I may get him into gundog work soon so it would be helpful). At the moment he brings it back, and drops it at my feet and sits (waiting for his reward). I would like him to Present it in the normal way - with a sit, and wait for my hand to reach out and take it etc (That's the correct way, right?). Any idea how I could go about this? I know quite a few on your doggies "Present" game out on the field, so I thought I ask for some tips!

Thanks,
-Alex

[millrace]

sit on a chair and throw toy out to retrieve and with your legs open guide him back in between them really close to you...then with a treat,command to sit and take toy from him,just build this up untill your standing and there you go he,s presenting.....easy..

[chickrockguitar]

Thanks. I will try that. But I get the feeling he'll drop the toy at my feet before he gets close to me, but I'll give it ago. 

[Nicola]

I wouldn't use treats when training a dog to present a retrieve as it will more than likely encourage them to drop whatever they're carrying in anticipation. I teach a 'hold' command for this and I teach it when they're young, before I do any proper retrieving training with them as it's easier to have them doing it from the start rather than have them get into the habit of retrieving but dropping it at your feet and then having to start teaching them not to do that. With Rodaidh I started when he was about 6 months old by simply sitting him in front of me and giving him a tennis ball while saying 'hold', at first I praised for him even having it in his mouth for 2 seconds then I would take it back while saying 'give' (I didn't even let go of it to start with, the key is not to let him drop it or spit it out) and then gradually I lengthened the time he was holding it and he soon got what 'hold' meant. I also did it with random things, he loves carrying socks around so if I was doing the washing I'd give him a pair of socks with the 'hold' command, it's all good practice! I then started rolling the ball or throwing the pair of socks a short distance away and letting him go for it and when he picked it up I gave the 'hold' command again before taking it off him with 'give' and I gradually built it up to having him fetch it properly and saying 'hold' as he was bringing it back before moving on to proper retrieves where it was just a matter of saying 'hold' as he approached me with the dummy before asking him to sit (to begin with I would say hold several times just to remind him) and then asking him to give. It helps at the beginning to get down to their level when teaching this so crouch or kneel down as they approach you and then as they get the hang of it you can progress to standing up and reaching down for the dummy.
 

[chickrockguitar]

Oo. Thanks Nicola!
I'll start teaching Marlee the "hold" comand, and see how we get on!

[milly]

Edward Martins spaniel puppy training dvd covers this topic teaching the pup to hold, although he says you have to do it carefully what he does is not harmful to the dog but then he is very experienced. We made sure we never took anything off our pup straight away, we encouraged him to hold it until we give our command which is 'Dead' and then he gives it up.

[TeresaUK]

Nicola you have done so well with your training! I wish I had not used so many treats with training Ellie. I am trying to give her less and less treats but she looks cheated. It's my fault entirely. Ellie is very motivated by tasty morsels and will do almost anything to earn them. But, dogs are supposed to follow commands out of respect not for food. Fat chance for me - I reckon I have blown it!

[Karma]

We are gradually clicker training a retreive and present in the obedience classes we do.

I don't know how the process ends, but we have started by establishing a good solid hand target.  With dumbbells we are now at the point where we can send the dog to "hold" the dumbbell, give a hand target, and click/treat only if they touch the hand target with the dumbbell still in their mouth.

We've also been working on the "right up between the legs" positioning in a similar way to how millrace described, except that we have not incorporated a retrieve into it - we are merely getting the dog to learn the position required (it's essentially a target exercise - each shoulder must be touching each inside leg to get the click/treat).  We're a long way from putting it all together as, with this being for obedience competitions, absolute accuracy of positioning is the key, but it does show it's perfectly possible to train a good present even if your dog is used to only learning through treats....    (Not saying that everyone should train with treats, but just that for those who have built up a treat expectation in their training, it is still possible!!)  The key to using treats in training is that, once the behaviour is learned, you set it up on a variable reward schedule - so they don't always get a treat, but sometimes get just praise, a play or occassionally a really really mega yummy treat...