Do you want to see a picture of my lovely DDog and help me train “drop”?

[LennyPugGoat]

DDog has settled in really nicely. And we were happy to discover sit, stay, lay, paw, bed are all understood.

Background as some may know DDog is a 9yr old 24 kilo Male staffy who sadly found himself in foster after his owner died.

We have dealt with his separation issues really well in the last couple of weeks, he is a good learner.

I’m trying to play fetch with him but what ever is thrown be it a ball or rope toy he will not drop, not even for high value food! We first discovered this when we took him for a long lead walk and threw a tennis ball. He walked the rest of the trip with the ball in his mouth, you could tell he wanted water but he wouldn’t drop the ball to drink!!

As he is quite a big strong lad I really want him to drop when told especially if it’s something he shouldn’t have in the first place, once his jaw locks on it is impossible to open them. I’ve tried smelly food, liver treats and spread cheese but nothing is working.

I can’t help, but he’s gorgeous. Good luck.

When does he drop the ball?

A few things to try:-

What if you bounce another ball near by?

I would also try to do the toy swap game - be prepared to look silly and get exhausted!

Have a tuggy and play with him ,make it fun, make it energetic.
Then drop the toy and pick up another toy, wriggle it on the floor, run away with it dragging it on the floor, be loud, be fun,be happy< Keep going until he comes and plays with the new toy. This can take time. If he does not come to the new toy stop put it away and ignore him until he drops the original toy then go crazy with the new toy again.
If you gently hold his collar and have food on his nose what does he do? (as a staffi I guess hold on to the ball tighter)

A bit like this but you will need to be more crazy this is very calm

The jaw lock thing is typical of staffies. He is a gorgeous big chunk!! Best of luck.

I grew up with staffies, when it is really important he drops, cover his nostrils. Not nice but if you want a staffy to let go you push them into the bite and suffocate them out of it. This is for emergency purposes only.

For less crucial drops, lots of training and bribe, swap the ball for a treat.

My pointer thinks drop means "hold with a soft mouth and let me remove" , the difference between breeds is huge and somewhat inbred.

Can you swap it for another ball?

He will drop it when he goes in his bed and tries to destroy it. We can’t use tennis balls we have bully toys for him and ropes.

I’ve tried the swap trick and running around like a loon he just runs away and comes back and forth until he gets tired and goes to his bed - I’ll try again with a little more crazy lady

jinx you are correct, I moshed cheese spread on his nose and he still wouldn’t let go!

pesty thank you for the emergency trick feel a bit more reassured that there is a way if we really need it.

jinx thank you for that YouTube link we are following that and he is getting it!

He is beautiful! My older boy can be stubborn when retrieving toys, I tend to lower his head to the ground holding on to the ball and he lets go. Don't have any other advice unfortunately...

Is he still really playful? My boys 8yrs and everyone I meet thinks he's around 2yrs. He's bonkers lol.

You could try 'safe swaps' 😬say drop (or swap) in exchange for a treat ... then gradually faze out the treat

Ddog was pts in Feb. Never gave up anything her whole life!!

Windy bless, what a beaut, I’m sorry for your loss :-(

Hope his weight slows him down with some joint pain - we are giving him some meds which are helping and he is losing weight so yes he can get his groove on when he wants to! When he first arrived 2 weeks ago he couldn’t lift his hind leg to have a scratch, the grin on his face yesterday when he could relive a little itch made me spit my tea out (grin)

Update, lots of tiny treats following the YouTube video has given him a runny tummy! I’m going to try again tomorrow with his breakfast allowance.

Here is another pic of his current position, happy boy.

Thank you for helping (smile)

Not great today, he will happily join in for low value toys but those precious chosen ones, not happening!

The good news is, he does tolerate me trying but it’s a very certain computer sys no jaw lock!

Does he like carrots op? Or a broccoli stalk? Our ddogs literally beg for veg off cuts!! Slices of carrot are used for training here!!

Fantastic that you are getting any progress so soon. Stay with the low value toys to start with then finish the game giving him the high value. Keep it hidden until you need it. but do not try to take the high value one off him yet.

So play low value toy, swop to another low value toy, be really exciting with this game, then swop to high value but game over you leave him to it.

Windy great tip, he likes carrots! We are making progress...

Are you using the right word? When we've took in a new rescue stubborn Staffy it's took a wee while for us to learn what they know, ours both understood "leave it" rather than drop.

Good point, I’ll try that, thanks

My old staffie (when I was a teenager) was obsessed with collecting "lost" tennis balls stuck in a hedge next to the tennis courts in the park. He could smell them and tracked the smell down to the exact spot in the hedge, where he would dive in and get hold of them. On some walks, he'd find about 5 and try to cram them all into his mouth to carry home himself (though had to admit defeat and allow me to carry some occasionally). He would try to chew them once home but did lose interest in them a bit later in the day so you could pick them up. We counted them all up after some months and he had got 76 tennis balls.

76 is an epic amount