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Virginia was more than happy to get back to us quickly! @debbie Here’s what Virginia said:
Like several other ACDs I’ve worked with, it seems a combination of a compulsive need to grab the object, and a true love of fetching, intermingled. I suppose there’s an element of guarding behavior, but the dogs WANT the human to throw the toy for them, it’s just hard to let go!
At only 5 months old, Lucy was already a hazard at her house because she’d grab so fiercely at dropped toys and was posing a risk to adults and kids alike.
The training was like this:
- At first, I presented just a very small approximation of my hand moving towards the toy. If Lucy held still, I’d click and then toss a treat away from her. Then I could pick up toy to begin another round of fetch.
- Gradually, I reached closer, while also looking for tiny backward movements on Lucy’s part, clicking just when that happened, and then tossing a treat.
- Gradually I shaped up more exaggerated backward movements on her part, even with me reaching fully to the toy.
- She was very quick to learn this. (If I recall correctly, she was only training at my house for under 2 weeks, and that was for a bunch of skills.)