Hank vs. Fetch

Hank has never been very good at the game of Fetch. He's not one of those dogs that's obsessed with balls, he's much more interested in the game of chase. If you follow my blog, you may have seen his how-to video on the subject.

As for Fetch, his style has been to chase after the ball and then leave it where it lays when he gets distracted by something else. When he does bring it back, he loses interest after about 3 times. In order to try to build his interest I always stop after 2 rounds then put the ball away, but that's about as far as I've gone to work on it.

Yesterday, however, I think we had a breakthrough. Hank found a squeaky tennis ball at the dog run and brought it to me. Having treats with me, I traded the ball for a treat and threw the ball again. He was having so much fun that I continued the game past our normal 2 rounds. In fact, we played Fetch for 20 minutes straight!

I was freezing and wanted to leave but we were having so much fun (and so much success!) that I couldn't bear to end it. Finally, a bossy Dachshund stole the ball from Hank so I seized that moment to leave.

I bragged about our progress all evening and can't wait to try it again. Maybe I'll finally be able to put my Chuckit to use. Needless to say, Hank will be getting some of these in his Christmas stocking:

Walk & Train Lessons

Do you want your dog's leash skills to improve? Would you like her to walk by your side or stop trying to say "hi!" to every dog on the block? If you don't have time to do it yourself, let me get these behaviors started for you. Walk & Train sessions can address:

-Focus & attention
-Leash aggression
-Pulling on leash
-On street fearfulness
-And lots more, just ask!

To see how Walk & Train lessons can work for your dog, check out the video of me with Finne (a star pupil).

Walk & Trains are available in half-hour and hour long sessions. Contact me for more information.