This is an interesting video that I found on YouTube recently. In the video, the trainer explains how to teach a dog to drop a ball or any other sort of object (including a hot dog!).
Note: I have never tried this technique, but I found this video interesting to watch and analyze because the method demonstrated in the video is quite different from how many trainers teach dogs to “drop” or “leave it.”
What you’ll see in the video is that during the majority of the “drop” training, the dog does not have any sort of object in his mouth. This might seem really strange at first, but the trainer has a good reason for beginning the training this way.
Most trainers teach the cue “drop” to mean “drop the object in your mouth.” This trainer is teaching the cue “drop” to mean “orient toward the floor, find the treats that are on the floor, and eat them.”
Once this cue is solid, the trainer can practice the cue when the dog is holding an object in his mouth. When the trainer says “drop,” the dog immediately drops the object and starts looking for the treats because searching the floor for treats and then eating them is incompatible with holding an object in the mouth.
So, check out the video below, and let me know what you think! I’d be interested to hear if you have tried this method or a similar method for teaching “drop.”
Watch on YouTube: Teaching Your Dog to “Drop”
I don’t think that I wil be trying this way of teaching.
I cannot see it being easy or reliable.
And I am coming away from the total reliance on food for training.
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I’m not sure whether or not I’d use it either, but I posted it because I always lovr watching trainers who come at a problem from a perspective that is completely new to
me. Always gives me something to think about.
I hope you see some of the other comments that were left after yours, a few people said that they’ve tried this and it does work quite well.
cheers,
Mary
I think that because dogs vary so much in behaviour, that few, if any methods, will work for every dog. I’m surrised ro see that so many peope hve used it successfully. ME– I cannot even GET my dogs to take a treat if here is a ball, sock, cat, stick, cat poo, dead fish present.
I have needed to TEACH my dogs to eat by rewarding them for taking a food treat and SWALLOWING it (rather than just spit it out).
Though being honest — maybe I did teach drop it this way sort-of. “Drop it and I’ll tnrow your ball/toss your catch ring” 🙂
Tuggers could probably be taught it wil a tug 🙂
I think it’s FANTASTIC! I think it would be time consuming, but very reliable and, for me, it changes my whole thought process around “drop it”. I think it would be a different way of thinking for the dog as well (compared to the training I’ve seen or done for “drop it”). Thanks so much for sharing this video!
I’m so glad you liked it, Lisa! 🙂
cheers,
Mary
Hi Mary,
Chirag is brilliant and I use this for all my clients. The fact that he conditions the verbal drop to predict looking for food while simultaneously conditioning hands near and moving around on the ground to be a positive is so elegant. The first time I watched the video I just laughed because it’s so intuitive once you see the whole progression. He conditions and emotional state first, connects it to a verbal and hand gestures and THEN adds in the objects, starting with low value first. The dog is completely set up for success and the progression easily moves up to more and more valuable objects. Eventually the object itself becomes the reinforcer. This is good progressive reinforcement training at it’s best.
I’d invite him to ORCA;)
Jen Digate
*conditions AN emotional state*
Thanks for leaving a comment, Jen.
You know, when I see “brilliant” videos on YouTube, I have to sometimes wonder if the method is actually that effective, or if the trainer just edited the video to make it look cool…
So, it’s great to hear that you use this regularly and that it does work quite well. I’ve heard of Chirag before, but I am not that familiar with him. I subscribed to his YouTube channel, and I’ll definitely look a bit more into some of his work.
cheers,
Mary
I’m currently working on this with my 10 year old dog who has a long history of scavenging food off the ground and being a deer-poop vacuum. For her, “drop it” means “eat faster”, so we’re starting over with this method. So far the results are encouraging!
Thanks for sharing about your dog, Alice.
With older dogs who have a long history of behaving in a certain way, it can sometimes be difficult to train a new pattern of behavior. So, that is great to hear that you have having success so far with this method.
I’d be interested to hear how it goes as you continue.
cheers,
Mary
Looks good to me. Especially since he isn’t asking you for money. 🙂 You could tell the dog has been trained using +R, at one point early in the vid, the dog knew there were treats in the offing, so he offered lots of different behaviours to see which would get the reward. Only happy, confident animals do that. Thanks very much for the link, I’ve subscribed to the channel too. I do think people rather miss the point with food and training, it is a conditioner, you don’t have to use it all the time once the behaviour is established, a voice reward can be enough.
I agree with Jen that this is brilliant and elegant!