Almost exactly 40 years ago, Peter trained his first dog - the local club was still very conservative and the retrieve exercise in particular was taught very ugly at that time. Back then it was actually common for young and inexperienced dog handlers, like teenager Peter, to have their dogs taken over by an older trainer for an afternoon and to be taught how to retrieve with a lot of pressure. "I got my dog Dino back from this „training“ and he was broken. After that, Dino didn't feel like going to the dog club anymore. Neither did I, by the way! I could hardly bear that my absolute dream dog at the time (I had begged for a dog for many years) had to experience something like this. At that time I actually made an oath that none of my dogs would ever have to experience something like this ever again!“ Then two things came together: I met my wife Connie, who was thinking exactly in the same direction, and so we taught my next dog Exi the retrieve in a playful way. Honestly, we had problems here straight away: the drive out to the dumbbell was quick, but our Exi didn't come back as quickly and also chewed on the dumbbell. In addition, there was also the dilemma that if you asked about holding the dumbbell calmly, the dog was even less willing to come back quick. If I made him a better offer (e.g. with his favorite toy) in order to get a faster way back, it could happen that Exi dropped the dumbbell completely on the way back in order to get his reward straight away. So, all in all, Exi’s retrieving was free from pressure, but certainly not ideal. 25 years ago we came up with a great idea for teaching Lola the retrieve: it doesn't have to be either - or : the dog has to want both (retrieval dumbelt and reward). The desire to “want both” can put a lot of motivation on the way back and so we get a quick way out and back. The calm holding of the dumbbell is also easier to explain because the dog can hope for the second toy by calmly holding it. We have described the exact structure in great detail in our book and are proud that this method enabled so many dogs around the world to have modern and fair retrieve training.
Collection game - how it started
