Jo's Old Site

After I had tea with my parents last night I let Ilse out for a run and a ball game. But instead of giving her treats to encourage her to come back to me with the tennis ball I had a rope toy, and I let her tug on the rope toy whenever she came back to me with the tennis ball.

Though Ilse was still inclined to run with the ball and play by herself. Or if not that she then got distracted by a smell on the ground. But then once Ilse realized that she got the chance to tug on the rope toy too if she got the ball and brought it back to me Ilse then eagerly returned to me with the ball.

Also once she was so keen to tug on the rope toy that she returned without the ball that I’ve throwned. But then I told her get ball and she went and found it and brought it back. It is also so good to know that I can use another type of reward other than food to get Ilse to do this. And also even though Ilse likes chasing after the tennis ball and carrying it, and she likes food I realized that the rope toy has a high value from Ilse’s point of view. 

As finding out what a dog considers is high value and low value is important when their trainers are trying to get them to do things. Also playing games with dogs teaches dogs to focus more on their trainers. And also having cue words is another important thing that a trainer has to work out. And then once the trainer’s dog is familiar with whatever cue words their trainer decided on, using them and especially the ones they use when they are playing with toys can really turn a dog on.

Also to get a dog used to playing with their trainers, of course their trainer has to play with their dog more often. But their trainers should always end the game before the dog that they are training decides that it is over.