Pretty much all of Watson's training so far has been with food, but I'd like to use toys more. When he was younger his toy drive wasn't high enough, but with a little work and some maturity, he now goes nuts for certain toys. Can someone recommend good resources for using them in training beyond the simple "ask for a behavior and tug as a reward". There's a lot I don't know about using toy drive and nobody around here seems to be training it (even in agility classes they just recommend food for the beginner classes)
My second issue is bringing the toy back. He has a natural retrieve with some toys, specifically rubber or plastic things like balls. He is much more interested in soft toys and will tug much more, but when he gets them he runs off to shred them. He doesn't play keep away necessarily, but he finds it much more fun to lay in the corner and destroy the toy than to bring it back and tug more. How should I handle this? Should I train a formal retrieve with these types of toys or is there a more "organic" way of teaching him that it's fun to bring it back? Right now I'm playing with two toys to get him to at least leave the first toy, but that doesn't teach him to bring it back for more play.
My second issue is bringing the toy back. He has a natural retrieve with some toys, specifically rubber or plastic things like balls. He is much more interested in soft toys and will tug much more, but when he gets them he runs off to shred them. He doesn't play keep away necessarily, but he finds it much more fun to lay in the corner and destroy the toy than to bring it back and tug more. How should I handle this? Should I train a formal retrieve with these types of toys or is there a more "organic" way of teaching him that it's fun to bring it back? Right now I'm playing with two toys to get him to at least leave the first toy, but that doesn't teach him to bring it back for more play.