I started teaching Nunya and Snoopy to retrieve yesterday without the clicker. Snoopy is already to the point that when I put the item down he brings it back, and I've added another item. Nunya still doesn't understand that the ball goes in his mouth. He was getting very frustrated so I started using the clicker, hoping that would clear up some timing issues. He made no progress. I think he's slow

Here's Nunya


Here's Snoopy


They're being taught using the same method (plus clicker for Nunya).

It seems like Nunya has associated touching the ball with his nose with the reward marker. I would try putting the ball in his mouth and reward him for holding it.

Yeah, that's how the shaping or the  behavior works. He has to touch it with his nose and then after a while of NOT getting rewarded for touching the ball with his nose, he's supposed to get frustrated and mouth it, -click and reward party-, dog sees, "Hmmm, maybe I should try that again!" Except he just gives up. I'm going to try switching objects to something he likes to mouth to see if that helps. Neither of them have any interest in the ball originally but at least Snoopy throws behaviors to figure out how to get the reward. Nunya got stuck lol

Nice work! I think you are right to use the clicker as it makes it easier to mark the right moment (and you have very good timing).

Have you tried it with the ball on the floor at all? I wonder if that would make it 'easier' for him because I am sure he already knows not to mouth you, so possibly he doesn't want to mouth something you are holding? I'm not sure though.

He seems to sometimes be going for it with his nose, and sometimes with the side of his mouth. Maybe you could reward touching it with any part of his mouth, but not with the nose, and see if he gets that; if so then that puts you part-way there (a split between nose and full mouth).

You could try it with something other than a ball. Something he likes more and is more into. With Dizzy, I know he loves sticks, so if I were trying to teach him to take something in his mouth, I'd start with a stick, whereas with a ball, he sometimes cares, and sometimes he gives me the 'whatever' look.

Thanks Ghost! I'll add clicks for side of the mouth too, that might actually help. I'm going to try switching to a stuffed animal, something he already mouths, and then try to generalize items after that. I've tried putting the ball on the ground but he really loses focus when I do that. If I put it between his feet he'll touch it but if it's not between his feet he pretends it's not there. He's either trying to get a reward without having to do anything and he hasn't figured out that that's not how the game works yet, or he's a big baby and doesn't want to be wrong

I noticed he pawed at the ball a couple of times in the video so I think he just hasn't figured out the rules yet and isn't sure what he has to do. A stuffed animal sounds easier for him but I'm sure you can do it with the ball too. Come back and post a video when he's got the hang of it

By the way, Nunya and Snoopy are beautiful .

The paw on the ball is because that was the first step and he's trying to get rewarded for going backwards. When I introduced him to the ball I held it out like I was going to ask him to shake so I knew for sure he'd touch it. Nunya totally ignored me and laid with his back to me in today's session and pretended I wasn't there, but once I put the camera away I got him to mouth the toy! So unfortunately no video but he mouthed it! I used the green toy that I'm currently using with Snoopy.

Here's Snoopy from today. Adding distance, you can hear Nunya whining through the screen door at some point haha


And thank you Ghost, they appreciate the compliments