what's some tips and tricks for teaching the send outs - Page 1

I'm training Zambi for the send outs.

After doing the jumps ( not the A frame) I then start training her for the send outs, which I've just recently started to do. The way I do it is to fuss her to the send out area (near the end of the field) and then sit her. I take out her kong and then walk out approx 20 to 25 paces and wave the kong back and fourth so she'll see it. I place the kong down on the ground and then I walk back to her. I give her the “voraus” command and give her the hand signal. She takes off but she then forgets where the kong is at so now shes in her search drive. I do not discredit her for searching so I don't even say a word to her because I know shes trying.

I was searching for a tool to help her and stumbled onto a site ( http://www.k-9bsd.com/the_device.htm ) that has a device called Behavior Shaping Device. It looks really good and I was impressed by the videos but the tool is too expensive.

I was wondering if anybody knows any other devices thats not expensive to help her for the send outs?

You need a target at the end of the field. You can use anything that can be easily seen from mid field. At the begining you can place the kong on top of the target if the dog can get it. Then move it to the base of the target on the ground. I walk the dog up to the target, place the toy at the base of the target and heal away. dont go too far at first. After many send outs you can increase the distance you go from the target. Knowing the toy is at the base of the target will stop the searching.

 Brittany,

You are probably starting too far away to begin with. She may or may not see the kong once you leave and begin walking back to her. Or, she might loose concentration. Or, she may simply have a lesser retrieve drive. I don't know your dog.

You are currently not teaching her to go to a spot and that is what you must teach. Start much, much closer to where the kong is. Get some type of pole made in the shape of an "L" or you make it yourself  and place it always in the same spot. The short part of the "L" is up and the long part stuck in the ground. This will get the kong or ball or piece of food or whatever you use as a reward off the ground and help her see it. In other words, you need to be able to hang the treat or kong or ball. Start close to the reward object. Make sure she sees it from a short distance, build her up and talk excitedly about "do you want to get it" or some such, and give her the command and let her go get it. Do this 3-5 times ONLY at any one time and always make it fun and play with her as you finally leave the field. Do not bore her with multiple times doing this at any given time so she gets bored and looses interest or gets tired.

You must do this over and over and over from a near position (but each time only 3-5 times so she does not loose interest). Then gradually, you move back a few feet. You do this over and over and over. What you are teaching is the dog to go to the spot and it must always get a reward for doing so. No platzing, no nothing else. Work on the platz completely separately from this sendout. Only later do you try to put the two together, but that is a long way down the road. It takes months and months and months to teach a good sendout.

Good luck. I hope this helps. If you do not understand, email me privately and perhaps I can send you a short video clip of how this should go. But there should also be someone in your club who can help you.

I was actually at a club that was using those little orange cones to teach the send out.  They would put the ball on top of hte cone, heel out a few feet, and then send the dog.  It was really awesome.  With the younger pups, they were only started a few feet away, and increase a little each week.  They have the cones at Walmart very cheap! :)

Christine

I have a device that my friend gave me for christmas last  year, it is a post with a clip on it and I can clip my toy to it.. I use a 4" soccer ball that I got at Walmart. or if I forget that, I'll just use my red and white rope ball.

We started using this beccause we want to keep our dogs from searching all over the ground...

Like paulp said, start with bringing your dog to the stand and showing it the toy and then heeling away a very dshort distance. You want to teach your dog to mark a target, which you can actually do inside or anywhere at first... have the dog sitting at heel ..show her a piece of food and toss it a few feet away, hold the collar with your right hand and with your left hand flat aand pointing to the food.. as soon as you see or feel the dog locking on it tell her to go get it!! Call her back and then repeat increasing the distance and the speed back toyou..

Do the same thing on the field starting close to the toy and moving back a little at a time, you must always have the focus on the toy and the dog wanting it really bad!!

I always always always have a toy out there .. I want my dog to always believe the toy is out there!! And only once in a while do I do the actual down on the field. Maybe once a little bit before a trial.....I also work the down with a toy just out playing and the reward for the fast down on the way to the toy is the other toy I have!1

This is a fun exercise and the dog should love it!!! 

I usually use a short shepherds hook type thing and put the toy on it.  20 to 25 yards is too far to start with, short distances first, you get lots of exercise in the beginning of doing this. 

Do you not have an A frame to work just yet?

I've seen people teach their dogs to go to a white towel and increasingly make that towel smaller.  We have a few people that teach their dogs the idea of a place board too.  This is also helpful with directionals as well, ie:  you can stand in the center with the dog and send to various different place boards around you. 

My dogs coming from herding, have been taught a "go" there, so I've basically improvised on that.  My male I added the down in too quickly, so he began to think about the down even before he got to his toy.  My female that I'm teaching it too now, I'm not going to do the down as quickly or as much. 

I've seen that device.  Way too expensive!  You can teach it without it by all means.

http://www.activedogs.com/default.asp?S=503&A=E&PKV=501010|0

this one is a bit more reasonable.

I haven't titled anything yet, but I read that teaching a dog to go to a target is a good way to overcome the instinct to NOT run away from the leader (owner/handler).  I also want to teach a send-away, so what I did was get a white bucket lid, one that fits a 5 gallon bucket, and I taught my dog to touch it with his nose when I say "target."  With clicker training, he picked up on that in one short session.  I would then have him target high, low, on objects, going up onto an object to target, and placing it on the ground and have him target there.  Success all around.  I then had him sit or down next to me after I placed the lid several feet away.  I told him "target," he shot up, ran to it, touched it, I clicked, he came back, and I praised.  I haven't done it in awhile but he can go 10 feet away or so to target it so he is learning that it is okay to run away from me when directed.  He does try to pick up the lid at times but that's no big deal.  Eventually, I plan on dropping the "target" and attaching "voraus" for long send outs, then tossing in a platz in motion before he can even get to the bucket lid, that way the lid can be phased out or just randomly appear.  Of course, I won't know if it has worked until I can send him out a football field's length, but it's a start, and I'll find out soon enough if this works for us.  It's promising.

A clicker REALLY helps.  I know we can do the same thing with our voice but it's a useful tool that improves timing and accuracy.  I don't have a toy out there, but my dog has learned that the bucket lid is fun- if he touches it, he gets praise and food, and shoot, touching a bucket lid's an easy way to earn a paycheck!

Rezkat5, that is the one I have.. it's pretty reasonable..