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Play To Build Drive Last month we talked about corrections, with the promise that this month we would talk about games you can play with your dog to build drive in your Golden Retriever’s obedience training. We must first get our dog comfortable with holding the collar. For this game I like to use a flat buckle collar rather than a chain collar as we are not going to correct the dog. With the dog sitting in heel position, place your hand underneath the collar, palm up and behind the neck. Hold a treat just above the nose and tell the dog to “get it”! I like to see the dog get an inch or two off the ground to drive to the treat. As the dog gets comfortable with this game, then restrain the dog by pulling your hand backward and tell the dog to get it. Put a little pressure on that restraint, but allow your dog to “win” so that he/she will be trying harder and harder to get the treat and will be successful doing so. If your Golden Retriever snubs its nose at food, this same game can be done with his/her favorite toy. Praise lavishly with each successful time that your dog gets the treat. Soon you should be able to really restrain the dog and he/she should be pulling hard toward the treat/toy. This is the first step in drive training, that will produce a dog who really wants to play with you. Another favorite game is done while heeling. How many times have you heard from others or thought yourself that heeling is boring? Well, only if you make it so for you and your Golden Retriever. When I am working on attention heeling, I will make large left or right circles (make sure to do both ways) and if the dog looses it’s focus on me, I will reach around and scooch them on the butt. I place lots of toys and other things on the ground to distract them when they are comfortable watching me. At the same time I will say, “hey what you doing” then go back to heeling. The tone of your voice should be upbeat. On a figure 8 cone heeling, I will make about turns unexpectedly, and will send the dog through my legs. I might even pull a toy out of the waistband of my jeans as a surprise. I might even start heeling backwards. These have become such fun things to do that my dog gives me lots of nice attention so that she does not miss what I might do next. Because the fast pace is something that dogs tend to lag on, our favorite game is to sit at heel position and then I lean forward as far as I can (without falling of course) and take off at a dead run. This is a great motivator for both attention and really moving out on the fast. It is also a great way to train the Rally exercise – Fast Forward from a Sit! As I am about to start this, and while leaning forward, I tell my dog “Ready, ready, go!” Hopefully you can incorporate some of these games into your training routine. As I watch others train I see them do lots of run throughs of the entire obedience routine. It is actually these small little games that will help you and your dog get a better performance in the ring. |
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