Hold it

[sled dog musher]

I'm trying to teach my dog the hold it commande. It's so he will hold an item in his mouth without dropping it. I'm trying to do it but he won't. Does anyone know how to teach this commande?

[DogPaddle]

Hmmm . . . usually I'm working on ways to get the dog to "dropit" :lol:
You could try starting with a tug toy and as you play say "holdit", then let him have it and reiterate "holdit" if he doesn't drop it praise. I know Kavik is very reluctant to drop a tug toy even when we are done playing.

[Guest Anonymous]

Using Clicker Training can work great. Assuming you know the basic for clicker training, the "Hold It" goes like this, offer the object you are using, say a dumbbell, to your dog if he sniffs it, Click and treat (C/T), do this until he is readily sniffing the dumbbell when offered. C/T every sniff, then gradually increase your criteria, he next has to touch it with his mouth for a C/T, then he has to lick it, put his teeth on it, take it in his mouth, hold it 1 second, 2 seconds.... Gradually increase until he will hold it a desirable amount of time, fade out the clicker. A great book for a more detailed expanation of this is [u]Clicker Training for Obedience [/u]by Morgan Specter, a book on using clicker training for competion level obedience training.