Comments on: Ball Obsession

By: My Dog’s Licking is Driving Me Crazy! « All Dog Info

My Dog’s Licking is Driving Me Crazy! « All Dog Info — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:15:05 +0000

[...] way. Our resident dog trainer, Grisha Stewart, wrote a great explanation of how to teach the ‘all done’ command on June 7th that would be well worth your time to [...]

By: Deborah Flick

Deborah Flick — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:38:21 +0000

This is terrific advice. I love the idea of working “with” your dog and his or her proclivities rather than fight against them. I also like how Grisha zeroed in on the person’s behavior and how she is reinforcing her dog without meaning to. All so familiar.

And, thank you Dogster for including Grisha Steward, a clever positive trainer. A breath of fresh air! Thank you again.

By: gooddogz

gooddogz — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:31:59 +0000

I have been a member of a Border Collie Rescue group for nearly 10 years. We have seen a LOT of intesnse fetchers in our days. The advice here is solid. Basically it is teaching your dog to have an off switch, something that high drive and OCD type dogs don’t come with. You can also swap for a chew, like a bully stick, or stuffed kong, to help with early withdrawal symptons. :)

By: Debbie Jacobs

Debbie Jacobs — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:27:16 +0000

Fabulous advice! I have a frisbee freak border collie that can be a real pain, and he barks for more play, really annoying. But this advice is totally on the money. The other thing for an owner to get past is the idea that the dog is ‘depressed’ when not playing, so may feel obliged to make the dog feel better by ball tossing.

Ball tossing is a super reward for a dog and means that the owner has something of value to offer the dog for different behaviors, which means teaching other ‘tricks’ or behaviors should be easier than for a dog that isn’t interested in what its owner can offer it. By learning more about how to train a dog I bet the owner of this dog can come up with a bunch of cool behaviors the dog can learn in order to get a ball toss. I ask for sits, downs from a distance, spins, waves, kisses, handshakes, object targeting, and then I toss the ball. My dog loves it and it’s all part of the game.