Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 7:03 pm Post subject: Smelly socks are working well!!
Well Maj is a labrador non retriever this is due to my naivety and the obedience club spoling her by forcing her to hold .
After our very embarrasing attempt at retreiving last sunday at Northumberland and in front of everybody , basically me trying to act like a loon - but apprently not loony enough- Majic still gave me the look of 'you're having a laugh, why can't you get it' every time a dummy was thrown
So thanks to Steve (westmacott) who was training our group, he asked if she would hold anything, yes she will carry dirty socks!
He said ok, get a pair of smelly socks, so we are using the ones I wore on training day, after numerous hours in my boots they were a little ripe and use these to hopefully rev her up a little for retrieving and I am not to wash them (just waiting for them to walk themselves to the wash).
Well me and eldest son (who does not know they haven't been washed) are training a little each day, he's doing the silly noises to get her attention then shouting 'mark' when he throws them and so far so good
We're only in the house to start with then progress further when Maj is comfortable with that.
I text Rach today (sorry Rach ) so pleased as she retrieved all and brought them back to me, spitting a little early but we will work on that.
So maybe I can get Maj retrieving after all - YAY!
If you leave a smelly sock on the floor in our house you can guarantee that at some point it will be returned to you with great enthusiasm! It normally gets shoved in your face when you are innocently sat relaxing on the sofa or enjoying reading a book in bed!! Luna seems to think they are the BEST thing and have to be enjoyed by all - Yuck!!
Glad you've found a better use for Maj's love of socks!
Smelly Socks are great, I used them with Samps when he starting spitting as they were his favourite thing in the world, will always reccommend SMELLY SOCKS !!!!!!!!!!!!
This is interesting as I've just spent an age trying to get Mole to hold something in her mouth for 7 seconds as the class I go to says she needs to do this to pass her test next week. Are you saying this is a big no no? She's really not keen on holding it as all she wants to do is give it back to me
So glad I'm not in your house at the minute Max was the same for socks, but you could now try CLEAN ones....he loves them even more.
The training day was not an embarrassment for you...................Maj did brill with most things so dont underestimate her (or you). How do you think we felt when Max decided to poo in the middle of a retrieve???? and it smelled much worse than your socks
Glad it's working - it's so blimmin' frustrating when the retriever won't retrieve! I've got one here who used to retrieve nicely, tennis balls to hand, super. I stupidly thought, 'this khaki malarky will be fine, I know my pooch retrieves.' Ooooohh how wrong was I. She loves the dummies so much that she hurtles after them like her life depends on it and then won't bring them back! When she does, she spits (never used to). I tried various techniques for training the hold, and am currently on the smelly sock hold too
This is interesting as I've just spent an age trying to get Mole to hold something in her mouth for 7 seconds as the class I go to says she needs to do this to pass her test next week. Are you saying this is a big no no? She's really not keen on holding it as all she wants to do is give it back to me
I always wanted to try and train Maj to work but due to allergies we are having a late start, the obedience group for intermediate level needed her to hold for 7 secs and she just wanted to pass it back to me, so the trainer forced her, which then sent her submissive and she is now 'psychologically' damaged hence having to go back to basics and build up her confidence.
So glad I'm not in your house at the minute Max was the same for socks, but you could now try CLEAN ones....he loves them even more.
The training day was not an embarrassment for you...................Maj did brill with most things so dont underestimate her (or you). How do you think we felt when Max decided to poo in the middle of a retrieve???? and it smelled much worse than your socks
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this is due to my naivety and the obedience club spoling her by forcing her to hold 
.
and use these to hopefully rev her up a little for retrieving and I am not to wash them (just waiting for them to walk themselves to the wash).
