Jersey and his squirrel

Look what a BIG squirrel I got mom! I caught him eating the walnuts in our yard!

What did ya say? I can't hear you?!?!?!

Drop it????? Do I hafta?





OK :(






TAKE IT?

Did I hear her say TAKE IT? YIKES ~ I can do that!

Drop it? What's up with her? Can't she make up her mind? I guess I can.

Take it ~ again - wow I really have her trained!

This may seem gross, but when Jersey catches anything (mostly rabbits) I give it back to him when he drops it for me. What I found was the more I tried to get it away from him, the more he thought it was a game of chase ~ mom catch me if you can ~ and of course I can't! In the beginning it would be twenty minutes of me yelling at him to sit, stop, down, drop etc. all while he is prancing around the yard like he is king of the world, but keep away from mom! The first time I actually got him to drop it on his own (me not prying his jaws open to remove dead animal) I immediately told him to take it, and he was in shock. Looked at me like - is this a trick? Nope - take it. The more I play this game with him the faster he is willing to drop it on the first command. Now I don't let this go on forever (cause it is GROSS!), but he is trusting me more that he will get it back, so he is more willing to give it up. This is all in preparation for the day when I am running very late (or at 5 in the morning getting ready for an agility trial!) and he catches himself something good, and I can tell him to drop it and I will have no worries about chasing him around the yard for twenty minutes.