Dog not dropping play items - 2008-12-28

Question

Question: I have a beautiful 18month old female boxer. She thoroughly enjoys chasing balls and Frisbee's and will bring them straight back but we have major problems getting her to drop the objects. She ignores the sit command and walks away or puts it in your hand only to pull it back away again. We are at a bit of a loss f how to fix this and get her to drop it. We have resorted to buying 2x of everything so that she returns with one and then sees we have another, so drops the first one and we throw the other, but obviously this is not fixing the problem. I have wondered before if she doesn't get confused with the drop & down (lay down) commands being so close in sound. Can you offer any words of advice?

Answer

Season Greetings! You may wish to consider the 'give' command, using a happy voice and maybe start at a close distance and give her a treat instead, when she release the item. You have done very well taking 2x same item and only give her the other item when she returns the 1st. However that could be the next phase. Change commands, start @ short distances, 'TRADE' something, so the dog feels it is fairly treated and build things up. The trade could be a pat, or a 'good girl' in the future, but she needs to trust that she will get 'something'. Her current behaviour is a sign of the dog retaining control of the game and the 'supply', therefore the power.... Don't turn any of this into a tug of war game as it will only get worse, especially if you let it go.