Teaching My Dog To Put A Ball In My Hand

[~Rumour~]

Hi guys,

As the title says I'm looking for ideas on how to teach my border collie how to bring a ball back and put it in my hand. She loves retrieving a ball and will bring it back and drop it near me but I want her to put it in my hand.

Has anyone taught this?

[ness]

Have you tried backchaining a formal retrieve aka Shirley Chong??

http://www.shirleych...s/retrieve.html

Although I have to say I didn't actually do that with my retrieve mad youngster it just became a case of if you didn't bring it back and place it in my hand then you wouldn't have it thrown again.

Edited January 14, 2012 by ness

[Pretty Miss Emma]

My training system for this was the same as what ness said! If Kenzie didn't put it in my hand then it just didn't get thrown again. I did start by placing my hand where she was going to drop the ball but very quickly transitioned to her having to find my hand. She wanted the game to go on enough that she'd drop it in my hand.

[Ben and Jerry]

That's how I somewhat taught my dog to drop his ball in my hand (sometimes :laugh:). I just stood there until he gave it to me, he tends to run up to you chuck the ball then watch you and the ball back and forwards. He's learnt if I say ball or point to his ball then it's not in the right spot for me and he has another go. After a few attempts he gets a bit frustrated and works out where I want it. But then sometimes he doesn't and he grabs his ball and looks for someone else to play ball .

[Sue & Waldo]

are you sure you want a wet slobbery ball in your hand :laugh:

[Mags]

My training system for this was the same as what ness said! If Kenzie didn't put it in my hand then it just didn't get thrown again. I did start by placing my hand where she was going to drop the ball but very quickly transitioned to her having to find my hand. She wanted the game to go on enough that she'd drop it in my hand.

This is what we did and it has worked well for all our dogs, we added the word give when they dropped it in our hand and before long they would "give" us anything they had in their mouth when we asked.

[Sparty]

Bah both my border Collies will retrieve then drop it a meter away and STARE at it lol drives me nuts i will have to try that link ness :)

[Erny]

Bah both my border Collies will retrieve then drop it a meter away and STARE at it lol drives me nuts i will have to try that link ness :)

Try first teaching your BC that you will throw the ball when eye contact is made with you.

[~Rumour~]

Just thought I'd report back that about five minutes ago I got her to put the ball in my hand.

I had a look at that link you posted ness an gave it a try yesterday with the ball but we got nowhere she just got too hyped up by the ball. So I have it a go this morning with a container which I got her to put in my hand and slowly added a command. Once she got that we tried it with a ball and had success.