I've been teaching Jack to "Give" his ball, or as other people call it "Drop it".
It used to be that as soon as I say "Give", he, knowing what I want, goes away with a ball... That's was pretty much every-time I said it. Now, I'm thinking, that I've just taught him a command to get his ball and leave; unfortunately the command 'in human' language is called 'give'. Now I wish i'd used gibberish in training Jack, because as soon as he'd learn to respond to a command, even doing the opposite, I'd still could use it... don't know for what, but anyway.
It's like with fetching, I used to say "Ready?!" right before I'd throw a ball for him to fetch. So, he's learned that "Ready" means a flying ball or something.
I'd also say "Give" to get the ball back - he shies away. I started to pretend he's given it to me already, and I immediately say "Ready?!"... That's when a little b***** drops the ball without knowing it
(probably thinking: "how can she throw it if it's not in her hands", or simply thinking "Huh? What?").
Now, all I have to do is say is 1) "give", 2) ignore his actions, 3) say "ready", he drops it, then I throw the ball .
These days, 90% of the time, he skips waiting for the 'ready' command (because he's learned it's coming), and he just drops the ball at 'give'... Me an his trainer had a laugh at it last week in doggy school.
On the same note, our friend, Sven likes to make Jack do the "play dead" - laying on the site. So, Jack's learned that as soon as Sven gets the training treat out - the "play dead" is coming. Now, he doesn't wait for the command, and just does that 'play dead' with Sven when he anticipates it. Sven says that he refuses to be stereotyped. HA!
