Tricks training advice

[skyedream]

Thought I would make a thread for anyone who's having difficulty training a specific trick so that anyone who's mastered that trick can give advice.

So my problem is with the 'take it' command. I can get Maya to take a toy from me but she immediately drops it to get a treat. Withholding the click and treat doesn't make any difference; she just gets frustrated. So how can I get Maya to take a toy and hold it until I tell her to drop it?

[Tatzel]

Hmm, is she toy motivated and/or have you played with her and the toy before?
Like pulling it across the floor and making her interessted into it/applying to her huntings instincts? If she likes the toy more, she might also be less prone to drop it immediatelly.

Usually I just rather had problems getting the dog to give me the toy, even when having treats

[skyedream]

She's more treat motivated than toy motivated. Hence the problem! It's a ball that we have played with before.

As soon as she knows she's getting a click and treat for taking the ball she will drop it faster the next time she takes it. So hiding the clicker and treats doesn't help. I'll try and make taking the ball more exciting, see what happens.

[TerriHolt]

Don't know if it will help but i'm getting Sam to fetch the post... He will go get the post but as soon as i make a move to the treats he will drop it and not fetch and i have been told that i need to command him to drop before he gets the treat, not him dropping because he knows he will get one because that is him doing it on his own merit and basically training me..

Another one we are working on is, i give him something and tell him to take it to someone... When he takes it, my partner will call him and he will run over with it... at the the exact same time of him producing the treat, he will say leave it because we know sam will drop it for the treat so we need the word to go with it and doing it to make it look like we told him to so saying it at the same time makes sense...

But getting him to take something, try using another person... like "take it" and the person calls her over.

If she is dropping because of the click and treat, make it longer between the taking and the click/treating... Say you start "take it" then click/treat but start pushing the boundaries... see how long she will wait before getting impatient and after the "take it" click/treat after that amount of time and gradually increase the wait time.

Or teach her that getting impatient won't win her nothing but waiting will... don't know if you already have or not...

Hope it makes sense and helps not very goood at wording things right

[skyedream]

I want to teach take it so I can eventually get her to put her toys away.

Waiting to click won't work because she immediately spits the ball back out again.

This is proving to be really difficult!

[Booma]

Maybe try with a stuffed toy/ rope and after she takes it, play a bit of tug of war for a couple of seconds. Then ask her to drop it and reward that instead of rewarding her taking it?

[Mylingen]

How about you try and work it the other way around?
Put the object on the floor, and wait for her to show any behavior towards it; look at it, sniff, etc.
As you clicker train I'm guessing you know how to shape?
So try and build it up from there. Might be easier?