[brightspot]

:help: I'm working with my 10 week old GSD and I'm a little confused with the three commands. I know "give" means to put the toy in my hand from his mouth and "drop it" means to put the toy on the floor. When do I use "out"? I don't want to confuse him when he gets to OB classes.

 

[Sri]

I think out is used when playing tug with your dog. It removes its mouth from the toy and sits. Atleast this is my inference . I have not taught my puppy out yet.

 

[MaggieRoseLee]

With a 10 week puppy I'd make things really easy and fun with lot's of play (which you clearly are) and not muddy future 'real' obedience into the mix right now. I'm not sure the word matters so much for now, cause it's just a word. If later you want to say 'LaLa' and have that mean 'drop it' then if your dog knows the word it's fine.

That said, here's some tips on the progression of training the more formal retrieve (just get thru the old forced 'ear pinch' stuff to the rest of the article).

Teaching Fetch Using Positive Reinforcement Techniques - Whole Dog Journal Article

The Dogs Are Really In Charge: How To: Teach Your Dog to Retrieve!: Clicker Training Journal

For such a young puppy, I'm WAY more into teaching ---> http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...191183-top-training-expectations-puppies.html and all the other stuff comes along the way!

 

[brightspot]

Whew! Thanks for all the links. It's going to take a while to read all of them. We are really playing with Wylie: toys and physical exercise and brain games. I'll leave out the formal OB words for now. He met four children yesterday who were in their kiddie pool and riding their scooters. He did really well, happy, friendly and not too land-sharky. We are going to a small outdoor concert tonight.

 

[Cassidy's Mom]

You can use any command you like, but generally people will use either "give", "drop it" or "out", as their cue for the dog to let go of whatever they have.

If you want to do separate commands for putting something in your hand vs dropping it on the ground/floor that's perfectly fine, but there are no hard and fast rules that you have to follow when training your dog.

 

[volcano]

The first question would be what are your goals? AKC obedience has nothing to do with shutzhund obed. Akc starts early but doesnt mind lazy looking dogs, shutz builds drive before asking for obedience. I like the Micheal Ellis puppy dvds and with training that way you could do great at akc or shutz.