The Hold Game

The Hold Game is designed for a retriever with the following training issue:

• The dog has a tendency to go out, pick up the retrieval article (a bumper or a duck), return with it to a point reasonably close to the handler, and then drop it rather than delivering it to the handler's hand.

Beyond that, the Hold Game is only suitable for a dog who also has the following traits:

• The dog will readily engage in an enthusiastic game of tug with a bumper on a rope.
• The dog has a 100% reliable release of the bumper that can be non-aversively cued when you end the game of tug.  You might have trained a verbal cue such as "Out", "Give", "Leave it", or "Release", or the dog might simply let go from silent communication the two of you have developed, such as when you stop pulling, or when you grasp the body of the bumper with your other hand.

If you have a dog who has all of those traits, here's a simple game I call the Hold Game, that can be played indoors or out, and that can greatly strengthen the dog's "Hold" response in a way that will transfer to competition retrieves:

1. Toss a bumper, one that has a rope attached, for the dog.  You can play this game while requiring the dog to sit until sent, or with allowing the dog to break as soon as she sees you're about to throw.  Obviously I'm not suggesting that you destroy her steadiness, so if you are not comfortable having her break without being sent, don't permit that.  On the other hand, if you routinely throw hey-hey bumpers for your dog anyway, you can address steadiness at another time and focus on training "Hold" at this time.
2. As the dog comes back toward you with the bumper, move away from her if necessary in order to engage her inclination to chase you.
3. As soon as she's close enough, enthusiastically cue "Hold", and at that instant grab the rope and start pulling, just as when starting a game of tug.  As you play the Hold Game over time, try to swoop down rapidly with your hand in order to make the first pull especially sudden and especially hard, making every effort to take the bumper away with your first movement.
4. Play a joyous game tug for a few more moments.  You can even cue "Hold" again just as you pull back sometimes.  I know that some people believe that the game of tug is more valuable to a dog if the dog "wins", but I disagree.  It's the cooperative effort of pulling against one another that, in my opinion, the dog finds exciting, perhaps modeling a pack of dogs tearing apart a poor prey animal.
5. After a few seconds, end the game of tug by cueing a release, and as soon as the dog releases, immediately go back to step 1, throwing again.
6. Repeat a few times, but of course only while the dog is showing peak motivation for the game.  Try to stop well before her interest begins to flag.  Depending on the dog, a single rep may be the dog's limit and will strengthen "Hold", though giving the dog another rep immediately after a release also adds reinforcement history for the release.

As you can see, what's happening in this game is that the dog is learning at the visceral level to respond to the cue "Hold" with an intense tightening of her grip, lest she lose her precious tug toy.  The more skillfully you give a sudden, hard tug a split second after cueing "Hold", the better she learns the desired response.  Her clamping down is being highly reinforced by a quick session of one of her favorite games, and every time she hears "Hold", she must again tighten her grip to continue the fun.

Later, when she's returning with a bird at training day or an event, and just has those last several feet of land she must cross to deliver the bird, you can cue "Hold" to trigger that conditioning and give her an edge in holding onto the bird long enough to complete the delivery.

By the way, "Hold" aside, a secondary benefit of the Hold Game is that it adds reinforcement history to the return phase of the retrieve, providing powerful reinforcement simply for bringing the article close enough to the handler to make it possible for the Hold Game to begin.  Since developing a high quality return can be immensely challenging for the 2Q trainer, the Hold Game is a welcome contribution to the process.

When you begin using the Hold Game, the dog may not understand the game at first, and may not bring the bumper close enough for you to grab, or may let go when you try to start the game of tug.  Work with her to shape her understanding of the game's sequence of events, and soon the pleasure of the game will enable her to play it to full advantage.

Again, please do not use this game with a dog who does not have a 100% reliable, non-aversive release after a game of tug.  I fear that doing so might exasperate the tendency that a small percentage of dogs have for "sticking" or "freezing" on a bird, that is, coming to heel but refusing to release the bird, a problem that is difficult even for the pros to solve using non-aversive or aversive techniques, and that can end a dog's competitive career.  It's possible that the Hold Game played early in the dog's career could actually mitigate against such a problem developing, given the reinforcement forces at work, but I don't have enough experience to suggest that anyone take that risk.