teach a hold
Teaching your dog to hold an object builds a solid foundation for teaching advanced behaviors for dog sports, such as retrieve. To teach the hold behavior, choose an object that your dog likes and hold it in front of your dog’s muzzle. Click and treat when your dog shows any interest in the object. Once the dog understands that interacting with the object is rewarding, slowly increase the criteria until the dog is nosing the object and, eventually, putting his mouth on it. Remember: never put the object into the dog's mouth. The dog should grab the object willingly.
In this video, KPA CTP Carol Milner is clicking and rewarding her dog Odie for putting his mouth on a dumbbell. Once Odie is mouthing the dumbbell consistently, Carol will teach him to bite down on the dumbbell and, eventually, hold the dumbbell in his mouth. At that point, Carol will give the hold behavior a verbal cue, such as “hold.”
Do you want more ideas for training critical sport skills? Check out Karen Pryor Academy’s Dog Sports Essentials course!
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