I bought the building drive grip and focus video. I'm not going to train my dog in Schutzhund, but found he and I both enjoy the exercises on the video. I need help with something though. Whenever we play tug, or he retrieves a ball, he is very good at dropping it when I tell him "drop it". However, he also drops it when I tell him to sit. I think I caused this by telling him to drop the toy, then putting him into a sit before I'd let him have it again. How do I break his connection between sit and drop it, so he'll hang onto the toy when I tell him to sit, until I tell him to drop it?

my dog had that probleem too, so what i did is when i told her to sit and she dropped the ball, i immediatly grabbed her collar pulling her back and bringing her into drive while whisking the ball away and redoing the drive building.. then one day i told her to sit and she held the ball! that was a good day , i didnt let her sit long but directly praised her with a "good vast" (good hold) and pulled tug with her. Still now and again that she drops it but i just put her back into drive and find that she is dropping it less and less and i let her sit a little longer each time.
hopes this helps

Thank you Stephanie.

lots of patience and praise and it will come in order
Good luck Rich

My dog used to do this. If given a command with a ball/tug etc. in his mouth he would drop the item. I put a flat collar on him and used a tug with a rope attached to it.(because he prefered it to the ball)

I would either toss the tug, or simply let him bite it while I held the rope. Without any verbal command I would use the leash and flat collar to lead him into a sit while keeping the tug very animated with the other hand. Again, NEVER giving a command at first and I did this until I could get him into a sit with the leash and he would hold it while tugging with me but remained seated. The next step for me was to add a light "sit" command while verbally encouraging his fight for the tug. I can't describe it, but I would just slip in the command during our play. If he started to soften his grip on the command I would intensify the tug game immediatly to avoid his dropping it. I just kept this up until I could give him the sit command without his grip softening. Once that happened I slowly reduced the length of time we'd spend "tugging" until I had him come up to me with the toy, and take a seat. Then I would play tug with him. I guess he learned to associate sitting quietly with the tug in his mouth with getting to play tug with me.

This easily transfered to the ball, and now anything he can carry. (ie: lawn chairs, area rugs, a shovel etc.)

Also, make sure you don't pick the ball up if he drops it. This is a bad habit to get into. Simply re-animate it by kicking it and then encouraging him verbally to go and get it.

That is because you never taught your dog to hold.Very important in any retrieve exercise.Teach him to hold first and then the out.go back to zero.have your dog hold his toy put it in his mouth and put your hand under his chin and calmly tell him hold with the other hand pull a little on the toy (he should still be holding it) tell him good hold, repeat that exercise often.when he holds it for a good amount of time then tell him out.And do it again.
I hope that made sense it's hard to write it out I rather show it, but I cannot download any of my videos for whatever reason.(probly cause I am not good at htat stuff)