I need help with training my dog...

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

So I am trying to teach my border collie mix to get the cordless phone and bring it to me whenever it rings. But I am a little confused. So far I have put the cordless phone on the ground, made it ring and whenever she looks at it I praise her. My question is, how do I teach her to grab the phone by her mouth? Do I need to teach her the "touch" command first in order for her to be able to pick up the phone by her mouth?
Thank you in advance.

 

[Redyre Rotties]

This is a very complicated chain of events to teach a dog.

Put the phone away, and begin with an object such as a dumb bell, and teach the dog to take, hold, carry, and retrieve. Then and only then would I work with the phone. I suggest YouTube and watching Kikopup's videos.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

By breaking the trick down into smaller parts you'll get faster learning and a more consistent final behavior. I would use a clicker for this trick as you want to be able to "capture" the exact moment she gets closer to what you are looking for.

First take the rign out of the equasion, that can be brougt back later and quite quickly you'll see she gets what you want.

Put the phone on the floor and click and reward her interest. As her interest gets stronger, as it should with this method, wean her off of just some interest for a treat and start waiting until she moves towards the phone, then systematically click and reward for more and more interaction with the toy. Really you could have her picking up the phone within a day....but first time clicker trainers usually cannot shape a behavior this fast. Eventually as you wean her off treats for movement towards the phone she might start to move her head towards it, then click and reward. After a while wean her off of the reward for head movement and she'll likely put her nose on the phone. Click and reward. You see how this works.

To be clear you'd click and reward a new behavior (looking at the phone, movement toward the phone) several times before allowing her to choose a new behavior in the direction of what you want. I'd say, for someone that has never shaped behavior using a tool like the clicker, you might give each new behavior a day before extinguishing it and asking for something stronger.

I hope this makes sense to you, feel free to ask questions.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

I've never done this with a phone, but I have done it with an oven timer. I did it closer to Redyre's way as I've never done clicker training. I used a dumbbell and taught take, hold, and carry. Then I taught retrieve and finally I used the oven timer instead of the dumbbell. Since I keep the timer on the counter, I also had to teach that it was okay to put paws on the counter to get it--it and only it!! since I did not want to give my Dobie the idea that it was okay to take anything else from the counter. I've also had great success teaching find and retrieve in a similar fashion, which works great for my keys!

HTH


Rusty