For about 1 1/2 weeks I have been trying the out on my GSD to get her to drop the ball. I will trick her with food. I tried doing the 2 ball thing. Will not work at all. She is so crazy about her ball. i can get her to drop it every time with food. But it still takes about 10 seconds to finally get her to drop it and really there hasnt been any improvement in the time it takes her to drop it. I've tried a few times to just say out and get her to drop it, but she does it on her own terms and not mine. I basically have to be patient and wait for her to give it up.Pretty much ignore her and play the waiting game.lol.anywhere from 10 seconds to a 1 1/2, when i try without food. Should i just keep working this approach with food and she will finally catch on or should i use a different approach? I am using the marker training with all training. She def knows the word YES!!!!

Aaron. Thanks. Right when she drops the ball i mark and reward with the treat. Are you thinking i should reward with a second ball once i get her to drop the first one? I'm having a hard time realizing that all this takes time. Not just a few moments. I'm getting better daily.

I did find a real deal breeder for my next future dog by the way. I thought I would give you a update on that. She wants references, vet contact, club information. Which is a good sign on her part. She is very professional and has great dogs. Vet contact is fine, but hell, I'm new to this and hopefully I can have a few of you guys give me one. I know its early with you guys, but i hope I've shown a dedication and that i keep on learning and I'm very open to listening to you guys/girls. I plan on joining my first Schutzhund session this thursday. Air Capital Schutzhund club of Wichita, Kansas. The president welcomed me right in and they plan on evaluating my dog! Should be a good experience..I will see how Meeka does at the club. I might wait close to a year depending on how far i can take Meeka.Or longer if i get her going really well. I think she has the ability, its just her handler that is holding her back on some parts. That is why the club should help me greatly.

I will be starting a post on raw diet tonight or tomorrow. My wife is TOTALLY against it. As my vet is also.

Of coarse your vets against it!! It's not profitable to have healthy dogs!! I was a vet tech for 7 years and went through all the @#$%! schooling they gave us. The funny part is when it came to nutrition portion we spent two days in a class taught by, and here's the shocker, PURINA MILLS. Heck their names and logos were all over our study material!!The vets are taught poorly at best about proper nutrition. I would find a new vet!!
Oh and how old is your dog? Is a forced aus out of the question? I know I'm gonna get fragged for that one. Not to many fans of forcing anything here. lol! I know you've only been working on this for a little while but some times it's better that they spit things out immediately.

Im working on trying to do all positive training. For the first year i had her, I knew nothing about training and used her pinch collar on a regular basis. Ended up hurting her drive pretty good. After switching to marker training her drive has gotten a lot better, I still need to ask the question? When do i start adding corrections? She knows the commands really well, but it seems the past few days she has gotten more sloppy, acting like....what if i dont sit when you tell me? maybe she is being a little stubborn. Maybe they will help me out when i get to club thursday. It will be my first session. What would be the proper type of correction for the out?

Don't bother rewarding her with food when she outs.
Immediately make more drive with the ball. She's reluctant to out because she knows she's going to lose the ball.

She clearly likes the ball, let the ball be the reward, and ditch the food altogether. Get a good Orbee on a string.

As far as a forced out...
You can always go to the forced out LATER, when the dog's grips are good. Put too much pressure on the dog too soon, and you'll sacrifice the bitework, that may or may not be recoverable.

In the meantime, I wouldn't correct the dog off the bite, if anything I'd opt for the exhaustive out at this stage, if the dog flat refuses to out.

There are many different types of correction for refusing to out, and it varies greatly depending on the situation.
Be careful to only tell her once, and as soon as she outs the ball, make drive immediately.

As far as corrections in general, you've only just begun training using markers. You've done a total 180 in your training style. A certain degree of patience has to be given to the dog, who understandably is confused by the change of tactics.

If the dog is lolly-gagging, you're either not building enough drive, pausing too much and thus "bleeding" drive, or you're simply training too long on the same command.

Tugs are much easier to teach the out on than balls. You can't isolate and make the ball 'a dead bunny' (as we call it) without risking fingers - not even a ball on a string. Once the dog is outing really well on the tug, then we can move to balls if we really want to. I tend to discourage balls for shepherds for training until way down the road because they build equipment bias on them so fast. JMHO.

Lisa I agree. Meeka ONLY like her ball. I have bought 2 different tugs. One is a rope with a ball on the end and the other is just a rope. She only wants to play with her ball and ball only. Actually racquetball. She is even picky about what kind of ball it is. I get the most out of her with her ball..... ABSOLUTELY crazy about it. Where with the tugs she rarely pays any attention to, I did notice that since I keep all MY toys put up now and only allow her to play with them when I'm ready to play, her interest in the tugs were more often, But I've been working nights the past 2 weeks and i always come home to her ball beside her. Yeah I have been on the wife for this. She is slowly starting to catch on. I will keep them put up again. And go from there. Thanks for the help.....

Aaron I'm expecting my new dog around the end of November to December if things go as planned. I will be putting down the deposit here soon. I still am not using ANY corrections. Once I get to the club and they get a visual of me, I'm sure they will have a few things for me to change up.

Do you have her on a line?