For those who believe in positive reinforcement...

[Christy&Riley]

How do you handle it if doodle growls at you? Riley had something in her mouth and I told her several times to drop it. She then growled low at me. She is almost 11 months old. Thanks.

[Marie and Hoka]

We trained our last doodle, Tinker, the command "thank-you" which was essentially "give it to me".  We trained him mostly using really awesome treats and traded him for whatever it was.  Give me your awesome bone, you get something awesome in return (perhaps a whole slice of cheese).  Occasionally there would be no reward, but not often enough for him to forget it is usually a trade.  Sometimes he got the original thing right back any… 1) trade bone for cheese 2) get bone right back again 

I think doggies are gamblers to some degree, if they get a "jack-pot" occasionally they will be more likely to trade up.  The day Tinker gave up a whole, frozen dead squirrel in exchange for a piece of cheese proved it works… Of course when you saw his eyes realize what he just did, it was hilarious! He was like, "Ok, I get my stuffed animal back now, right?"

[Christy&Riley]

I can imagine how funny it was when he realized he traded for cheese.

I like "thank you." May have to try that approach.

[Julie and Max]

Deborah you can start with treats and phase them out if you want. Like start with a treat every time, then every other, then every fifth and so on. 

I found the trick with recall to be when you are really starting to work on it. Don't call them unless it's going to happen. So I used a thirty food lead to really practice at first. Don't call them if they are too interested in something and you know they won't come. Eventually with enough work this will be super solid. You can also use petting or praise or a game as a reward but again, eventually phase out the game. 

Marie I think the jackpot idea can work, like phasing out the treats but they still know they might hit the jackpot. 

LOL poor Tinker, trading a whole squirrel for a piece of cheese, that's a poor deal for him! There is no way Max would trade a dead thing for a piece of cheese. :( That's where my problem still lies with the disgusting dead things! He is getting much better but every once in awhile he'll regress!

[Marie and Hoka]

He also once gave a us LIVE baby possum that playing dead in his mouth!  (Some stupid possum mom made a nest in our yard.) Didn't even get cheese for that one!!!!

He came prancing back in the house with his "nice stuffed toy", which was an unharmed baby possum!  He gave it up to my husband, who put it out the from t door.

I must say he was the best boy- lost to cancer in September.  I miss him so much.

[Pam Thomas]

So sorry you lost him, but you must have some great memories.

[BG and Gavin]

Here is a video by Victoria Stilwell teaching the Leave It cue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVJiwa9LHiw

Each dog is different and differently motivated so I think there is room for many different training techniques.  Once the command is rock solid, phasing the treats out is key to success.  Gavin would choose a squeaky ball over any type of food.

[Christy&Riley]

Thanks for the tip!

[Julie and Max]

Christy it made me laugh that she ate the bottoms of the toy box, as if Riley knew you wouldn't notice right away! I don't think that making them work for their food is mean, part of the reasons dogs can cause problems and become destructive is because they are bored. An animal in the wild has to forage for their food and can spend most of their day just finding food. Heck even we must go to work to earn our food. 

I can actually get Max to leave it with chicken on the floor it's awesome, I can make his sit by it, walk by it, and he will not touch it, but dead things are still difficult. Although today I was proud of him, he did leave a dead duck with a little coaxing. I also think it was Gavin's good influence as we were out with BG and Gavin which was really fun. 

I try to make sure there is no tissue for him to get, but I always take a tissue to bed, and sometimes I forget to throw it away straight out of bed, and I swear, he waits for me to get up and then he goes and finds that tissue lol. 

That is amazing that your other dog gave you a live baby possum! I remember when my daughter was little, and we were walking along the trail that I walk, which at the time wasn't really a trail, but anyhow there is a ditch/creek type thing along there, and my old dog Cleo ran down to the bank, picked up a muskrat and just shook it and killed it. :( My daughter got all excited and said "look mommy Cleo is playing with that cat!!" At the time I didn't have the heart to tell her what really happened. 

[Deborah Brown]

I came across this article about using treats in dog training.  I thought you all might be interested.

http://www.petprofessionalguild.com/Resources/Documents/The-Proper-...

[Joani, Skadi & Elli]

Great Article!  I had several trainers and continue to train with Skadi who is going on 4 this summer :( anyway, offering her a more treasured reward for giving up that raw bone was a godsend for her and me...especially after I naively grabbed her raw chicken wing from her when she was a youngster...boy was I surprised...never did that again, I can assure you!  After that, I was on a mission to educate myself about the behavior of resource guarding...this article tells it all, and you can NEVER stop training and reinforcing the training...it's a part of your new life with your new "best friend".

[Christy&Riley]

Thanks for the article.