it's JUST a ball!

[BeautifulChaos]

wasn't sure whether this should go here or not

I am currently working with a dog that I will have for about a month. He has a bit of a high prey drive that he leaks all over the place. He's not a working prospect, but will be someones pet, so he needs some control.

Here's the scenario: If you have a ball, stick, toy, etc in your hand, he gets the glazed look over his eyes, whining, drooling, and very focused on the ball - typical obsession. Doesn't care too much about treats in this state. Still obedient, but when he does a command, he's whining and "yapping" while doing it and complying very very slowly. The more you ask of him, the more frustrated and louder he gets.

It needs to be done on leash as if he feels like you're not going to throw it, he'll just go find a stick in the yard. Even then, he whines and barks at the stick he finds (hoping it will throw itself?)

Today I got the idea of trying to do doggy push ups (sitz, platz, sitz, platz) and waiting until he did one or the other quietly, and then tossing the stick. Mild improvement, but then he just wasn't all that interested in playing with me, would rather do it alone.

My initial thought was that I could just wait for the instant that he is quiet, mark and reward, but after 2 wks of doing it several times per day, I saw absolutely zero improvement.

His obedience is there. He is about 90% perfect with following command. Will hold high distraction stays, recalls, just about everything.

Just looking for some outside ideas.

He gets loads of exercise via hour long walks in the morning, puzzles, hide and seek, training time, and other games. This isn't pent up energy. Just thought I'd add this in since it would be my first suggestion to someone else.

today I caught him barking at the pool machine and getting very frustrated that it was underwater...so what did he do? Grabbed the cord and drug it out! Though it was amusing, still a bad boy haha.

[BeautifulChaos]

*BUMP*

any ideas?