Fixing a 3/4 Fetch

[Java]

Okay, it's been challenging to teach Boomer a full fetch and to stop (or reduce to an acceptable level) his excitement/demand barking (there's a reason I've been calling him Mr. Barky Bark).

I tried different things I read online but Boomer only got more and more ramped up - manic, stressed, frothy. So much barking too. So instead, I broke the fetch into different elements to work on. Each time he approaches me with his ball, I scratch his ears and call him the world's most handsome dog. I stop, walk away so he follows and I repeat. He approaches me with his ball and gets called handsome a lot these days. I think he likes it.

I carry kibble in my pockets so I can ask him to trade his ball (when he's not expecting it) and then I give the ball back (he's progressed to dropping the ball in my hand for the treat). If he drops the ball and barks at me, I quickly but calmly grab the ball if I can and put it away. Or if I see him drop the ball too far away and he's about to bark or starts barking, I immediately leave the room and go do something else. Randomly when he's calm and lying down, I go get the ball and make him wait in a down-stay for it. In a field when he's on a 30' line, I put him a down and throw the ball. When he's about to drop the ball and bark, I run away and make him chase me.

I've been wondering if all this would work when this week, he started bringing me the ball and dropping it at my feet! First time ever! As long as I move slowly and calmly, he backs off a little and waits for me to make the ball move again. It's not 100% but considering he always dropped the ball from a few feet to a few meters away (and snatched the ball if I got near) and barked, barked, barked... it seems like a big step forward. And he actually seems calm yet alert while playing. None of that stressed, manic, intense behaviour of before.

Maybe one day, I'll be able to take Boomer to the nearby play field, take off his leash, throw the ball and have him return it without barking & he'll drop it at my feet for the next throw. A nice, relaxed alert state is what I'm hoping for.

Coincidentally, he hasn't barked when I've left him briefly in the car this week to throw something in a trash can, to fill the gas tank or to use the outdoor ATM at the bank. I wonder if training on the fetch helps with this problem too.

I think I'm posting to say, gosh, this is a lot of work (to me) but it's so worth it. Because that boy is going to go to the dog beach and play. Yes, he is.

[Bob Pr.]

Sounds like you're bringing him along fine.

I'm working with Zach (he has 1/4 Lab DNA) twice a day to instill a desire to retrieve (a ball sometimes, a vinyl dummy some others). Most of the time it works fine but maybe 5% of the time he gets distracted and drops it to pursue some attractive scent. Hopefully we'll eventually reduce that 5% down to less than 1% or zero. At this stage, my 2 previous 100% AKC Labs were 100% convinced that the most important thing in the world was to get and return to me whatever I threw.

I have to smile at something he's recently doing -- I've often been quietly laying his retrieving dummy (1/2 black, 1/2 white) on the sidewalk on our walk back home and, after we've walked on for a couple hundred feet, pointing back and saying "Zach, FETCH!" while I keep walking toward home. That worked fine for a number of weeks but lately often Zach looks back over the route we've just walked and, if I've already laid it down, he spontaneously runs back to fetch the dummy before I've asked him to -- thus saving himself hundreds of feet of running effort. (Smart dog!)

[Labradorks]

Good for you for thinking it through and problem-solving! The stuff that causes an emotional reaction is the hardest stuff to fix. Sounds like things are improving. That's awesome!

[Java]

Thanks for the encouragement! I tried using two balls to teach fetch but he learned to fake going after the second ball and doubled back to grab the first. He'd stand at a distance with both balls on the ground and bark, bark, bark, bark, bark. It's been kind of a competition to train each other.

[Bernie]

Interesting.
These crazy labs; I think Rocco has barked twice in his 22 months, what I have to watch for is when he stops and stares;
if he sees, smells, or just makes-up something he's off to investigate.
I've also been working on fetch.
Keep up the good work.

[Java]

...I think Rocco has barked twice in his 22 months...

Twice? I wish.