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| “Take It” or “Hold This” Brenda G. Mills, DVM |
Teaching a dog to carry an object in his mouth on demand is something that most of us never think of, yet there are so many
situations where having a “Take it” or “Hold this” cue can short circuit unwanted behavior. There are many things that a dog
simply cannot do with a toy filling his mouth, like licking you, chewing on you, or barking. If you have a particularly large or
intimidating-looking dog, carrying a toy can also defuse potentially threatening encounters with people. Most dogs look much
less scary with a toy in their mouths. This tends to put other people at ease and minimizes the risk that they will engage in
potentially provocative or threatening actions when they see your dog. Carrying the toy also tends to reduce the dog’s anxiety
and decrease his likelihood of behaving in a defensive or aggressive manner.
There are two factors limiting the usefulness of this cue. One is that you must train it before you can use it. The other is that
you have to be prepared to use it, which means having an appropriate carry toy or “piece of trash” available when you need
your dog to carry it. Fortunately, appropriate objects are fairly easy to come by, and some can even be stowed in a fanny
pack or a pocket. You must take several things into consideration when selecting your object(s), including the size of your dog
and his or her tendency to attempt to swallow things whole. In my Golden Retriever, Apollo’s, case a perfect object is a child’s
sock. He loves them and they are small enough to carry easily. He also does not attempt to swallow them. There are also
several small canvas or firehose-material stuffed tug toys that have short loop handles on the market. These can be
conveniently carried by the loop on a wrist, attached to a belt or belt loop using a carabiner clip, or even in a pocket.
For some dogs (like Apollo, who is an incessant licker/mouther), teaching this may be as simple as shoving a toy into his
mouth every time he opens it to lick or chew you. As long as his mouth is full, you will interact with him. No toy, no attention.
For most dogs, training will involve a little more work. Clicker training is very effective for teaching this sort of cue.
Clicker training is a game. You are using the clicker to tell the dog “yes, that‘s it, come get your treat” at the instant your dog
offers the behavior – or part of the behavior – that you want. Your dog’s job is to figure out how to make you click – how to
earn the food. Clicker training is achieved in short sessions (just a few attempts, because you want to leave your dog wanting
more) throughout the day. Some days you may work on a behavior in 10 short sessions, some days only one. Duration of the
session and number of repetitions are irrelevant. It is the quality of the repetitions that count. As long as your last repetition
showed a little more progress than your first one, your session was successful.
The first step is to “load your clicker” – get your dog to associate the sound of the clicker with food. This is pretty easy. Take
a handful of small, easily consumed treats in one hand and your clicker in the other. Click, and treat. Repeat until your treat
hand is empty. Session finished. Come back and repeat that session a couple of times. Your dog will get the idea.
Then begin training the behavior. Place your treats in an immediately accessible location, such as an open bait pouch at your
waist. Hold your clicker in your dominant hand and present the object, either in you non-dominant hand or by placing or
dropping it on the floor. Click and treat for any interest in the object, even if all you see is eye movement in the direction of the
object. If you get no interest after 10 or 15 seconds, move or drop the object. Dogs are predatory and movement, especially
if it is rapid or erratic, usually catches their attention. Click and treat for watching it move. Repeat several times, moving the
object less with each repetition.
Once you dog is looking at the object again after being treated, wait until you have movement toward the object to click. If you
wait long enough, part of the dog (nose, mouth, foot) will move closer to the object. Even half a centimeter of movement is
clickable. Each repetition should result in the dog moving closer to the object.
The next training goal is touching the object. At first, a nose bop is acceptable – or even a foot touch. Work your way up to
the dog actually taking the toy in his mouth, then holding it, then holding it longer. If your dog drops the object, use a friendly
marker such as “Oops!” to indicate that dropping it is not the exercise, then bring your dog’s attention back to the object and
click him for taking it back again. (You may need to pick the object up and present it to him, or even go back to clicking him for
looking at it a few times.)
This type of training is accomplished in small increments. You want to be rewarding the dog often, ideally on the order of
every 15 seconds or even more frequently. Once the grab is happening consistently, you can introduce your cue word, giving
your cue as your dog takes the object.
This exercise should be regarded as a trick. Make it fun, make it rewarding, make it low pressure. If you do, performing the
trick should have a settling effect on your dog even in stressful situations.
For more information on clicker training, go to www.clickertraining.com or check out the latest in books on clicker training at
www.dogwise.com.
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