Pogo is an 7mo old GSD from working lines, and is being raised as a pet/companion. One of my favorite bonding things with previous guys was your basic fetch game. While Pogo seems to exhibit substantial prey drive, and loves the fetch; I haven't been successful in encouraging him to give it back for another toss. He prefers to play tug, etc. No aggression, and he is clearly playing. If I ignore him, he continues to try and work it back into my hands, but never releases his grip. My tactic with previous guys would be to ignore their return until they finally dropped the ball on my feet. I think of this as purely play time, and don't want to invoke or associate this game with an obedience command. Anyone have suggestions on how to get the point of this across to Pogo in a way that remains in a purely "playtime" context ? In other words, I consider obedience commands to require mandatory results, but wish playtime to remain unstructured and free of consequences other than "fun".

Have 2 tennis balls, the reward for bringing back ball #1 is to get to play with ball #2. They catch on pretty fast, but then you run the risk of the problem I have with my dog... he'll drop ball #1 about 6ft in front of me in anticipation for ball #2... nothing I do will get it thru to him that I want him to bring ball #1 to my feet, once he's dropped the ball, I can't send him to go grab it because he's too interested in ball #2. But at least he's got the idea <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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I haven't been successful in encouraging him to give it back ... he continues to try and work it back into my hands, but never releases his grip.

In my opinion, "Drop it" (or whatever your release command is) is a command that cannot be overlooked. I've never done any formal obedience training, but being able to get a dog to drop something in his mouth could save it's life at some point so it's right up there with "Here" and "No". A dog that enjoys fetch, and brings the object back to you is already half way there. Keep a pocket full of treats and trade him a treat for the ball on command. After a few play sessions, you can start removing the treat from the equation and give a slight correction if he disobeys. If he really enjoys chasing the ball and carrying it back to you, this shouldn't take long at all.

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he'll drop ball #1 about 6ft in front of me in anticipation for ball #2... nothing I do will get it thru to him that I want him to bring ball #1 to my feet

My lab was really bad about this when he was younger. Especially at the lake where coming all the way back to me required more effort because he was in the water. I started working with him at home using the "go get your ______" command. Now, he understands that I want him to go pick up an object (he knows rope, tug, ball, frisbee) and as soon as he picks it up, he gets a verbal praise followed by a "bring it here". Once he understands those two basics, getting him to do it during a game of fetch is pretty easy. He gets frustrated that I'm not throwing the ball again, and tries to figure out how to get me to play again. Of course, I'm giving the command to "go get your ball" and "bring it here" when he's got it in his mouth so it only takes a few repetitions for him to get it.

I've got him to the point that he'll follow those commands given by anybody that's out with me. So as soon as I'm tired of throwing the ball (and it's good and slimey) I let someone else play with him. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />