The lightbulb has gone off for Keeva...

This post is just me gushing and has no real point, sorry.

Her drive has just exploded. She was always an intense little dog but it seems like her drive is really starting to mature.

Today and yesterday she was so crazy intense on the flirtpole. I actually hung her from the tug as high as my chest and she just clamped on like a little alligator - and keep in mind she's not a terrier, LOL, and has never had a particularly strong grip before. She's so SERIOUS about it too; it's not a game, it's WORK to her.

She was also throwing tons of herding behaviors at the toy, so we started doing some dry work - just "Lie down," "walk up," and "that'll do" to end our sessions. She was already throwing the down and the creep, so I'm really just working on naming them.

This almost makes up for her horrible teenage brain right now. Did you know she doesn't know how to sit or down? No one ever taught her that. Ok, well maybe she knows it but it's boooooring. But, of course, free shaping some perch work is easy as pie. I'm really working on showing her that she CAN her feet closer together than she thinks. Perching is hard for shorty dogs!

So anyway, my dog is a teenager but still awesome, and we are just going to work through teenage brain phase with lots of focus games, drive building, and shaping cool stuff/body awareness.

And I KNOW, I KNOW, useless without pics/video. I know. Here's one irrelevant pic to make up for you guys reading all this:

IMG_3939 by Traveling Koolie, on Flickr

Lindsey might have posted that already, lol. Keeva also just discovered swimming.

I love it when they turn on! Knox did too, this past week finally. He was a drivey little monster as a puppy, but when I got him at 14 months old he wanted nothing to do with toys. He's hitting the tug now though, going after tennis balls and I'm loving it.

What have you guys been doing to encourage toy drive? And what does Kiva's flirt pole look like? I'm going through this with Sienna right now, she's never had any toy drive at all. I'm shaping her to tug, but she doesn't like to chase anything (well, except for squirrels LOL.) Would LOVE some pointers!

Honestly, with Knox I just quit trying. Id offer a toy, but if he said no thanks, I didn't push it. He literally flipped the switch overnight. Right now, I'm letting him get away with murder pretty much because I want to build that drive and not squash it. So I frustrate him, tease him ect until he's pretty much yelling at me and then I'll throw the ball or let him hit the tug toy and I'll fight with him with the tug a little bit, but 95% of the time I let him "win" in the first minute. Or I'll let him keep the tennis ball. I haven't even taught him an out, I play two ball with him and he can't pick both of then up at the same time (yet lol) so there's always one free to throw.

I also put him up or end the game before he wants to quit. Then I'll let him out twenty minutes later to play a shorter game and we're done for a while. He's a genetic powerhouse of schutzhund dogs though. He's from lines that tend to mature a little bit later though, and he just hit 18 months or so old. I was worried for a little bit because he didn't seem to want to play the game, but now if he continues the way he has, he'll be an awesome schutzhund dog. So really I didn't do anything but wait

Enzo on the other hand wont retrieve. I've tried shaping it, she'll do it once or twice (being heavily reinforced each time) just to prove she can, but its just not her thing I guess.

A non-retrieving retriever? :lol-sign: Sienna didn't used to fetch either, I had to seriously micro-shape it. It taught me more about shaping...She loves her dumbbell now but hasn't generalized it to anything else. Sigh.

Yep! lol, she's my Labrador "fetch it yourself" Retriever