I have a question that relates to the intensity of a dog during obedience. For those of you who have already been through this how does your dog react to the prey item (ball) when he first sees it? Should it be like a switch? As soon as the ball is present he is turned on and ready to go?

I just overcame an obstacle where I was not moving the ball fast enough for my 5 Month Old GSD dogs liking. Last weekend I made my dog a flirt pole similar to the one Bernard uses in the video. He went crazy for it. Snapping, jumping, diving at the ball, and even targeting the ball something he has never done before (he usually goes after the rope). We've been doing this three times a day for the last two days. Before that I was using a learther rag which he liked but not with the same intensity as the ball on pole.

My question is does intensity come over a period of time or should it be present right away if a dog is in high drive? Also, over time will the amount of time the dog stays in drive increase? It seems like nothing rattles my dogs nerves. It very difficult to get him into high drive but when hes there it is a wonderful thing. I believe I saw this for the first time this weekend with the flirt pole and I want more.

I think your answers are right there in the title Brian. Building Drive.

Brian, I'm not an expert by any means, but a couple of things jump out at me from your post.

First, your pup is only 5 months old; make sure that you don't do anything like hard tugging that might cause pain while your pup is teething. Not good for his teeth and not good for drive-building.

Also, your pup's bones and joints are still growing. Be careful with the flirt pole that you are not encouraging jumping...

I know with my own dog that I saw a tremendous surge in drive when she hit about 6 months. As she has matured she will stay in drive for longer periods of time, and I would expect as a generality that is true for most dogs...

At 5 months you want to be keeping your sessions short and fun for your pup...

Short sessions and end the game when he still wants MORE.