My son was wanting to earn some screen time this afternoon and the dog was wanting to burn some energy. I could tell, because every time I went outside to see if she wanted to come in, she would grab the long stick I'd gotten for her earlier in the day from the far back yard and get in the play crouch.
I offered a trade to my son: play fetch with the dog for screen time. He wasn't sure but decided to try it. I put the dog's training collar on and met him outside. I took the dog off her runner chain and got a tennis ball. My daughter joined us with her fuzzy crocks from Nana and heavy winter coat and pulled the hood up, putting her hair in more disarray than it already was.
I told them both, very firmly, that no matter how much the dog might want them to throw the stick, they must never, ever do so. I explained that she anticipated where they might throw and that she could easily get hit in the face by a rapidly moving and spinning stick. They could play tug with the stick all they wanted with her, however.
I demonstrated to my son how to throw the ball and then call the dog back. With me, since I've been doing this for a while, she fetches the ball, comes towards me and drops it in front of me for the next throw. This is something that has to be learned though. By default, they want you to grab for the ball and then wrestle to gain control of it. If you can get the ball, that is. There is a lot of keep-a-way behavior as well. You have to teach the dog that the only way you're going to interact with the ball and throw it again is if they drop it in front of you.
At this point, Matisse comes to me and drops the ball. But that's with me. I wanted to have my son elicit the same behavior with her. My son had an idea which I loved: he got his tennis racket and was hitting the ball with it for longer distance. He and I worked for a bit and made progress on her coming to him and dropping the ball. We still have work to do though.
I used the training collar twice, hoping it would give her clarity on coming to him instead of me after getting the ball. It turned out just having him say, "come!" in a firm voice was a better way to give her guidance.
While I was out there I noticed the collar was in a strange state. I had the controller with me and when the dog came inside after playing with my son I called her to me and took off the collar. I was sitting on the bed with the manual, trying to figure out how I'd gotten it into a different mode. I pressed the soft, rubber button with the collar sitting on my lap. When that didn't work I changed to another setting and pressed the button again.
Suddenly the dog was beside me on the bed. When I pressed the button again she was almost on top of me, leaning into me. Then I realized, she could hear the very light sound of the button being pushed. There was no vibration happening on the collar as it was set to zero. She was trying to comply though, even without the collar on or any command being given. After a third time and another setting test, I gave up and turned the unit off because even though she didn't have the collar on, she thought what I was doing was meant for her.
The Big Boy Update: My son said he was working on an art project that was a surprise for us. A bit later he came downstairs with the bottom of a small paper cup taped over his eye—with a pencil extending directly from the center. He had mock impaled himself. We took a picture of it it looked so realistic. Then we told him to walk carefully with it on until he got to his desk to take it off. I have no idea where he got the idea. Can I use the, "he's a boy" excuse this time? He was so pleased with his creativity.
The TIny Girl Chronicles: My daughter wanted to play fetch this afternoon too. I had her throw the ball a time or two but explained this was something I'd asked her brother to do and it wasn't her turn. I said I would show her how to play fetch with Matisse tomorrow, but that her brother had the job for now and she would have to wait. She got very upset, went inside crying and when I came in said, "leave me alone, I don't want to talk to anyone." She disappeared into her room to listen to an audiobook. I'm going to try and teache her tomorrow. Sometimes it's hard to wait your turn.
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