Progress in releasing the ball!

[wildwolf60]

I was so proud of my goofy boy, Jaeger today! He's our adopted boy we got last summer- was EXTREMELY possesive on his toys, or whatever he had in his mouth, lol. To the point where he would clamp his jaws together and it would take a pry bar to loosen them, ha, ha.
Well, after a year of working with him, and training, he's come soo far! He does not clamp his jaws together anymore, and doesn't grab the first thing he sees on the ground now either. As long as it's not a ball, he will drop it on command or leave it altogether.
Plus, today, while playing fetch, ( which was one of the hardest to teach him to drop the ball at my feet) he finally gave me a near perfect game! He brought the ball back, I showed him the other ball, and he dropped his and kept looking at me! I was able to keep his interest on the one in my hand and I threw that one so he'd go get it. Then I picked up the discarded ball to start all over again.
His problem was he wanted both balls all the time, lol. I've actually had to get larger balls to throw, which would make it harder for him to hold 2 in his mouth, I use 3 1/2 inch diameter balls. He's still managed to get 2 in his mouth for a short time, lol.

Anyway, I was really tickled at his progress! He's such a sweet boy!

[Riley3696]

Congratulations!! It's always nice to see your hard work pay off.

[wildwolf60]

Thank you! I remember the first couple weeks after adopting him, I thought he'd never come around, lol.
He's really sweet, and smart. He knows back up, stay, sit, shake hands, speak, lie down and wait.
Now at least my socks are safe from his grabbing them out of the clothes basket when I'm putting laundry away! That was one of my peeves with him, he'd sneak up on me and grab a sock, then take off running! Didn't want to let go either. I'd have to hold the sock, talk to him and say let go, then usually end up putting my fingers at the back of his jaws and carefully push in to open the jaws. THEN, he gave it up to me.
Now he will just lay there next to me while I'm putting the laundy away and just watch. I can have stacks of socks right in front of him and he won't touch them. Success!
He's my velcro dog too.