Enoch is now over 6 months old. His training is going pretty well. He loves to play fetch and we really never taught him to bring the ball back to us he just did it naturally. Well now he brings the ball back and stops about 2 feet before he gets to us and lays down. When we try to get the ball he runs as if we're playing a game of chase. This is a new behavior and I'm wondering if it is due to him getting older. Also since I never taught him fetch what do I do to get him to come all the way up to me instead of stopping two feet before he gets to me?

My second question is we had some handymen come to our house yesterday and today. Enoch's crate is in the family room. When the doorbell rang and the men came in he starting barking like a mad dog. This was a deep baritone bark. Eventually he settled down although he wouldn't take his eyes off of them. I'm assuming this is normal behavior and I like his alertness. I know if someone doesn't belong in this house he will let me know. But I want to teach him when I say it's okay to then stop barking. Is this an unrealistic request? If not, how do I teach him that once I allow people into the house he needs to stop barking?

hi

we're talking about that in another thread, about my dog's barking and how to get it to stop. Perhaps you'd want to read what's going on there. I think it's Marker Training to stop puppy barking.

Chuck Silverman

Thanks Chuck. I'll take a look at it. Any suggestions for the game of fetch and his recall?

 Quote: Maisha Butler

Thanks Chuck. I'll take a look at it. Any suggestions for the game of fetch and his recall?

Yeah, get another ball. When he retrieves the ball start playing around with the other. He will drop the first one then you throw the second and pick up the first, repeat. This will get him used to bringing the ball back to you and dropping it. Ed demonstrates this in one of his videos but I can't remember which one.

 Quote: maisha butler

Enoch is now over 6 months old. His training is going pretty well. He loves to play fetch and we really never taught him to bring the ball back to us he just did it naturally. Well now he brings the ball back and stops about 2 feet before he gets to us and lays down. When we try to get the ball he runs as if we're playing a game of chase. This is a new behavior and I'm wondering if it is due to him getting older. Also since I never taught him fetch what do I do to get him to come all the way up to me instead of stopping two feet before he gets to me?

He figured out that he likes you to play chase.

What you can do is sometimes called chaining the command, and, in fact, with fetch, I do "backchaining."

Little links (parts) of a full command behavior are taught separately before they are joined.

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=15&Number=169911&Searchpage=1&Main=17457&Words=backchain+Connie+Sutherland&topic=0&Search=true#Post169911

Backchaining is just teaching the putting it into your hand part first.

Or, have you tried 2-ball, where you trade?

When Max started barking at noises he heard we decided to teach him a 'bark' command so we could then say 'no bark'.

It works for us because Max isn't a bark just for fun type of dog, though he does really seem to enjoy doing it when we tell him to.

I guess with this kind of thing you have to be pretty sure that your dog won't turn into one that just barks all the time once he's learnt it. But with Max we figured he knew he could bark - cos he did when he heard noises - but he didn't seem to want to do it any other time.

So now he'll bark to say he's heard something or when someone comes through the gate - which I like - but we can tell him to stop when want to.