A retrieve exercise

My Labor Day outing with Susan and Allen showed me that Larsen's retrieving was below par, but that his obedience exceeded my expectations.  As a result, my 5 minute exercises with him have changed a little.  The focus now is on short little retrieves.  Here's the new exercise.

1. Hup him.
2. Toss one or two objects about 6 feet away.
3. Tell him to get one of them.  
4. When he grabs it, let him bring them in.  If he dawdles even a second, give him a triple tweet and some pats on my thigh to tell him to come in. 
5. Make him hold & hup.  
6. If everything is a success (and he doesn't spit it out), praise him, but don't give him a treat.  (If you tossed two objects, tell him to get the second one.)
7. After all of the fetching and hupping is done, step a few feet away.   Call him and hup him.
8. Do this again.  Then give him praise and maybe a treat.

I give praise but no treats for steps 1-6.  He may get the treat for coming and hupping from 6 feet away, which is something he already has in the bag.  (He is such a genius.) 

We're doing this new exercise with different objects. 

Larsen inspects the barbell and rope man fetch toys.





The barbell and rope-man have different feels.  The barbell is rubbery and rope-man is ropey.  I have in inventory a hard dumbbell, a piece of wood, and a piece of PVC pipe and a quail wing taped around a piece of firehose, which will get deployed at some point. 

As he progresses, I'll ask him to fetch it up from greater distances and with distractions.

At some point, when he's having success with everything else, he'll get a dead quail that currently is in the freezer.