Play rewards at articles

[Liesje]

What are peoples' thoughts on play rewards at articles? Like pulling the dog off the track to play for a minute, then restarting? I've never done it, just curious.

[Freddy]

I am by no means a Sch vet and I'm sure others will chime in on this but I train with some veterans and "known" people in the sport, had the foundation of tracking taught to me in Kentucky. I have never seen or considered this, and have talked with a lot of experts.

My observation for my dog would be, he's in a hunt drive when tracking. I don't want to take him out of that. Now I have a dog that is on the edge when in drive so that is more specific to him but if you want to try to bring some "value" to the track, feed at the articles or get high value treats like sardines for the end of the track. If his nirvana is the tug or ball, that's what they get. At the end.

[Stella's Mom]

One woman in my club said that she would lay articles down on her patio and each time the dog reached the article she had her trainer rain treats on the dog so that the dog would be happy to keep finding the articles.

[Jason L]

I've seen plenty of people do this. Some people even bury a ball on the track for the dogs to find and then they play.

The only thing is if you are going to toss the ball for your dog at the article, be sure you know where other people's tracks are so you don't accidentally turn their tracks into your dog's personal playground! There is a guy in Dallas who is notorious for doing that. Packen knows who I am talking about!

[lhczth]

I have never done this AT the article, but have put random balls on a long track, played a little and then restarted my dog. Maybe Frank will see this thread since I believe he had a dog that tracked for balls on the track and not food.

[Freddy]

By the way, forgot to mention that when my dog is tracking, the article is the food button.

[Liesje]

I was thinking about using this technique not really in terms of training the track or training the articles, but using it later on sporadically and randomly to keep the track fun. I'm happy with the way I train articles, which is using food off the track, then putting them on the track once the dog already knows to find and article and platz without command, and like Freddy says my articles are food buttons, meaning they are always a safe place which = food rewards (from my pocket, not already on the track). I guess I view tracking as finding articles, so I always want the articles to be rewarding and a desirable thing for the dog to seek out. Now naturally GSDs can and will track just for the sake of tracking, but I still view my overall goal in training as training a dog to seek out articles so I was daydreaming on using a toy instead of always just food like I have done.

[onyx'girl]

I need to do this as well, my dog is not real motivated to track for an article. If it was more rewarding then I think his focus and need to track would be greater. I think he'd really like to find a helper at one or two articles on his track.

[Mrs.K]

Originally Posted by Jason L

I've seen plenty of people do this. Some people even bury a ball on the track for the dogs to find and then they play.

The only thing is if you are going to toss the ball for your dog at the article, be sure you know where other people's tracks are so you don't accidentally turn their tracks into your dog's personal playground! There is a guy in Dallas who is notorious for doing that. Packen knows who I am talking about!

That would be the Jackpot. In the beginning that's at the end of the foodtrack. I do that with Indra, others do it with the favorite food.

I also have a ritual right before I take her out to track.

[schh3fh2]

Originally Posted by lhczth

I have never done this AT the article, but have put random balls on a long track, played a little and then restarted my dog. Maybe Frank will see this thread since I believe he had a dog that tracked for balls on the track and not food.

Yes my last dopg was not a big food drive dog, so I tracked him for burried balls on the track, he would find them and dig them up, I would not play with him however as he has extreme ball drive, so he would dig them up and then lay down...I do know a lot of others that then unclip the leash, play a little, lay the dog back down, clip back on the leash and then restart the track......The possible downfall (and why I didn't play at the articles) is that the dog starts to speed to get to the articles....With balls buried, the intensity is down into the track...with ball play at the articles the intensity becomes forward on the track to get to the articles....2 very different drives....


Frank