Description
The first exercise is to get your dog interested in your prey dummy. This is done by filling it with tasty smelly food such as cheese and sausages. Your dog won’t be able to resist the smell! Next let your dog have a good sniff and open it to show them what is inside, let them put their nose in and help themselves to a snack. Do this few times and then seal it back up and drop it on the floor in front of him and encourage them to pick it up. If does so, gently take it and again reward from the prey dummy.
Do this several more times. We advise to have your dog on a lead at this stage as you need to ensure that the prey dummy remains your property and they are not able to run off with it to chew in a corner. If your dog is picking the prey dummy up and letting you take it you are ready to move onto the next stage.
If your dog isn’t a natural retriever all you need to do is persevere a little longer, just rewarding for touching the prey dummy with nose at your feet. With a bit of encouragement from you, your dog will eventually understand and start to pick the prey dummy up.
The next stage is to throw the prey dummy out and ask your dog to retrieve it. Again we advise keep your dog on a long line until the retrieve has been conditioned by requiring to bring the prey dummy back to you whereupon your dog gets rewarded from it as above. Try not to throw it too far whilst still conditioning the retrieve.
When your dog is happily retrieving the prey dummy reliably, you may move onto hiding it and getting them to find it. You can do this indoors to start with and move it to outside in your garden and then start to use it in this way on your walks.
One of the most important benefits of using play with your dog is that it helps strengthen the relationship between you and your dog. Play is fun, and involves both you and the dog. It makes you a team. Finding a game that you and your dog enjoy and then using that game all the time increases your value to your dog and helps your dog enjoy you more. With a deepening relationship, every interaction between you and your dog is more fun and more rewarding. With play, you can create a dynamic that will enrich not only your training, but your lives together
Final tip : Why not use your prey dummy to feed your dog on your lead walks every day? In this way your dog will learn to trot alongside you taking his food and imagine how focused and excited he will be every time you pick your prey dummy up?
