I am continuing to work on breaking Ace’s tennis ball obsession. One small step he’s made is he has the command “leave it” down really well. He will at least leave a ball on the ground and follow me when I tell him. He has gotten much better at home, but of course as soon as someone new comes over he will get excited and bring that person a ball.
When Ace does decide to bring me a toy, it works best to totally ignore him. When he obsesses over a ball, it is because he wants attention, so I turn my back to him or walk away.
I am also encouraging Ace to make eye contact. Whenever there is a toy in the room and I catch him looking at me, he gets lots of attention. I’ve been practicing this in other situations too. When it’s time for him to eat, he doesn’t get his food until he looks at me first.
At the park, we are continuing what we were working on last week. I throw the ball only after Ace relaxes and looks at me. Then he has to relax and look at me again before retrieving it. I started a new challenge this week where I throw the ball and then Ace has to follow me as I walk the other way. Then I find a piece of trash or a stick and we play “find it.” This is a big challenge for Ace because he wants to run back and get the ball, but instead he has to find something else. I hide the object about three or four times and then let him “find” the ball. But of course he always remembers exactly where it is!
One thing I plan to do soon is go to the dog park early in the morning when there are no other dogs there. Then I will let Ace run around but tell him “leave it” whenever he tries to pick up a tennis ball. Visiting the dog park with so many other dogs there would be too much of a challenge for us at this point. When we do eventually go to the dog park during a busy time, I will most likely bike there so Ace gets a good workout before we even enter the park.
(This is day 10 of my 30-day challenge to break my dog’s tennis ball obsession)
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That’s great that Ace is giving you and “leave it” and is able to concentrate on another task of finding a different object. It sounds like you’re making great progress already! Awesome!!!
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Great job Lindsay. Sounds like you are making some real headway. Keep up the positive reinforcement. You are doing great with the creative management aspect.
Hi! This is reminding me of the first few commands I learned to help with Pepper. One was “find it” but what that did for me was to help her relax around other dogs. She would often focus on a dog who’s butt she wanted to kick, get stiff as a board with the hair going up. The other dog would see this and inevitably respond with their own comments… but if I dropped a treat nearby and told Pepper to Find it, her body language would break up, she’d drop her stare and sniff around, she’d do something besides fixate ridigly on the other dog, and he other dog wouldn’t feel rudely threatened. So it did help quite a bit while Pep grew out of her punk stage.
Another command, “Watch me” helped too, and it was about eye contact. The trainers had us hold up a treat at eye level, then when Pepper looked up at me I’d give her some praise and then ask her to sit, down or something, or “find it”. It was a great way to get her puppy head snapping up and eye contact right away. Now she does it without treats since I might be pointing out a mousie hole or something top priority…
Anyway, blah-blah I’m enjoying your taking on the ball fixation. I really admire your work – and is it just the pictures or does Ace seem to have tons more character in his eyes now? I keep seeing more and more expression in his face. I think you are really helping him grow. Great job. — Bonnie
I really enjoy the pics that you include. Ace looks so innocent here as if to say, “See how good I am!”
I really admire your approach and your patience. I like the aspect of practicing at home and at the park, as many times our dogs think that “out there” is the land-free-rules-where-I-can-chase-squirrels-see-ya. I bet that working the various settings re-enforces the news habits more quickly. Keep it up!
this is a great picture!
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