Kind of a weird question here, but what the heck. I have a 5 month old female GSD that I am going to be doing schutzhund with. She has good toy drives, and food drives..but lately her very biggest thrill is chasing the water out of a high pressure hose when I'm out cleaning the runs--she'll even leave her food and come at me at a dead run to be able to chase the water across the grass (she isn't allowed to chase it when I'm actually cleaning the runs--only when I've come back out and she is in the yard, just so you know). She would chase that all day if I would let her. Very intent on "catching" the water.
So my question is this: Is there any way I can do this that would help her drives to benefit her later with schutzhund? Or is it just a fun game for her? I know that she can't actually 'win' the game in the sense of actually catching the water and carrying it around like a prize, but I have kept the water out of reach and will let her 'bite' the water and I'll tell her 'good dog' which she seems to enjoy. Is this something that I can incoorporate into a drive builder? Or is it something that could be detrimental to her training later? She is my first actual schutzhund pup and I'm worried about hurting her drives. I just thought that since she loves it so much, it would be nice if it could be worked into a drive builder. Any thoughts or suggestions?

HI
I'm no expert but all of my dogs do well in bitework and we play the water game all the time. I used it with my APBT-he did not like to bark for the bite so I put him on the outside of kennel while I cleaned and when he barked, I'd squirt the water his way as a reward. Now he consistently barks when we ask-without the water!

My seven month pup also has this intense drive for the water and I've often wondered the same queston you asked.

My Pup loves this game as well. I look at it like, anytime anything can invoke prey in my dog, is a good thing, especially water! What better way to keep cool in the summer and still drive him up? Plus if anybody ever tries the old throw water on the dog trick, it will just drive him up more.

Just be careful not to spray directly into his ears or eyes.

Our 3.5yr old bitch does the same thing, except she's a little more intense about it than a puppy. She loves chasing and biting it and will play that game anytime we let her (a lot during these hot Louisiana summers).

Fun game, not a good idea as a "drive builder".

What are the goals of building drive? Does the water get you closer to those goals?

But, like I said, fun game. . .

I think a lot of dogs like this kind of game, because I hear this now here and my dog does like this too. Actually the harder the spray is set the intence she gets, she even bites the full water sprey upclose. And I can spray it upclose in her face and she likes it.
My other dog used to have the same thing.
But what I can do with this for schutz I don't really know appart of the loud command. But this I prefer to learn with the food bowl.

Anybody ever try a flashlight? Discovered that by accident several years ago mine LOVES to chase the beam from a flashlight. He never chases any other lights, eg. car headlights. Just the flashlight.

My JRT will chase any focused light. It can be a real pain sometimes. My 4 year old grandaughter had him running up a wall in the living room chasing a reflection from a piece of toy jewelry she was wearing. we were all in the kitchen and before anyone knew what was going on that little 14lb dog had scratches 6ft up the wall. Of course I got stuck Painting. I have read this is a form of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). It's usually a lot of fun but other than a fun workout, I can't see it as much of a training aid.

Nah.....I just mentioned it cause I thought it was kinda fun as a play/workout thing. He will sometimes chase focused light as well. I have read about OCD as well, but I don't see it like that as he is a normal well adjusted dog without any other OCD behaviours. Could it not be a version of "prey"?

P.S. Sorry about the painting. I like painting. Perhaps this little trick could be used by many people to "encourage" their mates to paint the house. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />