Hi - Blake is a year old and up til now we have focussed mainly on obedience and general manners. We have been working on land and water marks for several months but not a lot. He seems to be steady at the line, good at marking and great at running out and a bit silly coming back so I keep him on a line for now. I am mainly using the 10 Minute Retriever for advice. I have just started session of teaching him to accept the bumper. I have him heel with the pinch collar on, sit and then I present the dummy to him and when he takes it I say hold, wait a couple seconds and say drop it. I also keep my hand near his chin so he won't fail although it hasn't been an issue yet. Drop it is one of his better commands b/c we have worked so hard at it for other reasons so things are good there too. The first time he was happy to grab the bumper but it seems that now that he has figured out I am making him do it he is trying to avoid it. He tries to look away and I actually have to force him mouth open. He is genrally an avoider when it comes to all new obedience stuff so I am not surprised. Still, I feel like I may be missing something. He can figure out the basics of a new obed. command in a few minutes. Should I just keep forcing his mouth open until he catches on? Is there a better way to get him to want to pick it up at this point? Also, now that we are committed to working on this, should I stop all marks? What about short fun retrieves that we do inside soemtimes for a stress relief during obedience training? Stop that too? Thanks, Alicia

A. Parsons

I have also just started the hold sequence. In the "10 Minute Retriever" it gives very specific details on how to do this. Grasp the top of the muzzle with your left hand and roll the Dummy into the dogs mouth. I ensure the dogs lips are not going to be pinched between the teeth and the dummy. My advice is read this over and over until the sequence is memorized then go to work.