Indi is very food motivated and will not work for toys or play. I envy people who can pull out anything and have their dog completely focused on tugging with them and ignoring all else. So when I brought Porter home I was looking for a pup who would be a tugging fool (and hopefully play fetch with me).
Porter has always enjoyed tugging but it's not at the level needed to use as a reward for working. I know he would have amazing toy drive if I was better at building it and knew exactly what to do. Since that is a weakness in my training, Porter and I had a lesson today with a local trainer who teaches drive and motivation classes for dog sport people.
The first step in her process is to use a flirt pole. Although hers is much shorter than the one I have at home and there are some key differences between the way I've been playing with mine and what she recommends. Keep the end moving, but only a foot or so away from the dog, and don't bounce it up and down like I usually do. Once the dog grabs it, use your free hand to reach down the line near the end and give a few tugs up in quick succession. This is done with you facing away from the dog so there's no conflict. When the dog pulls back, you walk backward, allowing the dog to gain ground. Then you let go and the dog wins. You are still holding the handle end but keeping the line slack. The bunny is dead. When the dog let's go or releases to adjust his grip, the bunny spring to life and dashes off. The game begins again. When you end the session, the dog just won, you step on the line so you can get close to the dog and use treats to distract him and walk him away from the dead toy.
Even with the distraction of being on a new field, Porter played the game like a champ. He did go off to the side once to sniff and pee, so we gave him a moment in case he needed to poop. Nope, he was just checking things out but came back after a minute. Kellie and her assistant (I forgot her name already!) were impressed with Porter's crate behavior :)
On the way home we stopped by a tack and feed store to buy a shorter lunge whip. I was looking for a 5 foot one with a much shorter...line? I don't know what you call the floppy end. The one I currently have is 6 foot with a 6 foot line. Unfortunately their inventory was low but I was able to get one just over 4 feet with a shorter line. I attached my leather floppy toy to the end, which was similar to what the trainer had, but mine was shorter.
This evening we practiced what we learned. Porter chased after the end with gusto. When he won and the line went dead he did his typical maneuver and did victory laps with it. His goal is to pull it away from me, but he also dashes to the other side of the yard when I get close so I can't take it away from him. Instead of giving chase and trying to take the toy back I carefully followed him with slack in the line. I did my best not to face him so he didn't feel the need to keep running off and play keep away. This went on for over 10 minutes and both of us were worn out. Finally he laid down but kept his grip. I wasn't fast enough to dash the bunny away when he readjusted so we had a stalemate for another few minutes as he just held on tightly while I stood there without tugging or putting pressure on him. Eventually I was able to whip it away again and we resumed the game. Subsequent rounds went faster with less prancing around after he won.
Overall I think it was a successful session. We need to break some bad habits I allowed to form but I think we will quickly get over them with Kellie's advice.
Kellie did say that Porter was the most advanced dog she's seen on the first day. :) Good Porter! Like I said, in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, Porter would be a maniac tugger already. Even though I've dropped the ball it looks like it won't take too much to get him on track. Yay!
