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11-19-2010, 09:03 PM | #1 |
Thor's Human Donating Member | Advice on teaching basketball I got one of those mini hoop and plastic "basketball" sets recently. I am trying to teach Thor how to do a "lay up", but it's turning out to be pretty hard. First, even though the ball is only 4" across and a little saggy, it's too big for Thor to fit in his mouth. I thought about making a little hole in it and letting more of the air out, but I'm hoping I can think of a way around that. I'm wondering if maybe I can find an even smaller basketball, or even teach Thor to hold it in his paws? He can stand on his back legs for quite a while, but I don't know if he can hold anything in his front paws during. That might be too ambitious. Second, I'm wondering how Thor should "dribble" to the basket. Should I just get a ball small enough for him to carry in his mouth, or should he push it with his nose along the ground? Or kick it? Third, it's turning out to be way harder to even get the basics of it together. He knows Take It, Hold It and Drop It, so I thought I would just teach him to Take It over the hoop, and then Drop It. Well, I never realized that he doesn't associate Hold It with moving. As soon as I signal to him to move, he drops the prop. What's even weirder is that when we play Fetch, I always have him drop the ball into my hand -- but I always put my hand down right in front of me. If it's even slightly off to the side, he just drops it. Fourth, it turns out that he is scared of the basket, or more precisely, things dropping through it. I've positioned it five inches off the ground for now. I tried balancing a toy right on the edge and having him Touch it so it falls through the basket. It took every smidgen of courage he had and stewed chicken to get him to even try touching it. It was sort of hilarious, actually. He could smell the chicken, and he would approach the basket, back away, whimper, bark, lie down, approach the basket, bark again, etc etc. He was definitely braver by the end, but I think he outsmarted me, because no matter how precariously I balanced the toy, he stopped knocking it in after the first couple times. I don't know how he did it, but he figured out how to nose the toy without actually disturbing it in the slightest. I treated him anyway because it was clearly very difficult for him. Normally I don't push him that far out of his comfort zone. It kind of reminds me of trying to teach him to use a potty bell. I used the bell hop bell, and I used the standard method to teacm him out to use it. That being, we practiced "Touch" with it until he accidentally rang it. I praised him to the skies, gave him a big treat, and took him out for a walk. And that, my friends, was the last time he ever rang the bell. I tried and tried, but he made sure he never touched the ring-y top of it ever again. Anyway, book length starter! Any thoughts?
__________________ If you love something, set it free. Unless it's an angry tiger. Last edited by QuickSilver; 11-19-2010 at 09:06 PM. |
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12-07-2010, 03:56 PM | #2 |
Banning Thread Dictator Donating Member | No WONDER no one replied! That is one complicated set of questions! I'd break it down into smaller steps. Rather than worry about dribbling and walking and shooting all at once, concentrate on first finding a way to get him to drop it through the hoop. I'd start with a smaller ball, one that he can fit in his mouth. Then, since Thor is on the vertically challenged side , I'd find a way to elevate him so the scary hoop is not right in his face. Maybe set him on the couch and have him "drop it" through the hoop in your hands. Or, as my video below shows, have him walk up some doggie steps and drop it down. You can also work more on getting him to drop things in your hand as opposed to straight down. I do that with Eddie by just saying "hand" when he misses and not rewarding until he hits my hand. Sometimes, he'll drop it 3-4 times before he gets it right. I think kicking it to the hoop would be AWESOME, but make that your last step. I've heard you can get dogs used to kicking things by getting a round interactive treat ball and tell him to kick it. Kicking it auto-rewards him, and he should get the idea. Here's a couple evolutions of it. He's now dropping it through a regular nerf hoop basket, but I can't seem to find my video showing that.
__________________ Mike ~ Doting Dad to Jillie, Harper, Molly, Cooper, Eddie (RIP), Lucy (RIP), Rusty (RIP) and Jack (RIP). Check us out on YouTube |
12-07-2010, 04:17 PM | #3 |
www.yorkierescue.com Donating Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Las Vegas & Orange County
Posts: 17,408
| I agree, go with a smaller ball first. I think we taught Uni basketball with the drop it command. She already knew how to fetch, so it was just a matter of her dropping on a mark. She likes to chew her balls and squeak them on people so it wasn't much of a stretch to have her squeak it on the rim. We tried to get her to look down into the hoop by putting our hand up from underneath with a treat, so she would have to stick her head in there to get the treat. That was so she would realize the hoop around or near her face was not a scary thing. Then we would tell her to drop it while she was squeaking the ball and at first most of the time it didn't go inside, but when it did we praised her to no end. The very first time she did it, we rejoiced to loudly we scared her, which in turn i think made her even more scared. But eventually she started getting it. Then we raised the hoop so she would have to be standing on her back legs to slam it like a proper dunk. This is where we encountered problems. She could do it, and did, but she put her hands on the rim for support and it snapped out of the backboard. That freaked her out, so now if we even try it on the higher position, she will NOT put her hands anywhere near the rim. So we have stopped doing it in the high position. She does do it with whatever ball though we did start out with a larger ball, about 3" or so. the one in the vid is the one she started with so you can see it's quite big. It's a soft vinyl ball though, so it smashes in easily. We didn't try to use the little basketball it came with. Don't remember why. btw, Mike, what is that contraption you have that spits the ball back out? Did you steal that from a mini golf course or something?
__________________ The T.U.B. Pack! Toto, Uni, & Bindi RIP Lord Scrappington Montgomery McLimpybottom aka El Lenguo the Handicapped Ninja 10-12-12 |
12-07-2010, 05:31 PM | #4 | |
Banning Thread Dictator Donating Member | Quote:
I can't remember why I decided on trying that instead of just using a nerf hoop. I think it kind of evolved. I wanted to elevate him, but I wanted to make it more fun for him than just dropping it. With that, he drops it and can fetch it on his own. I think I was hoping I might have a game that would entertain him by himself, but he typically only does it when I'm directing the action.
__________________ Mike ~ Doting Dad to Jillie, Harper, Molly, Cooper, Eddie (RIP), Lucy (RIP), Rusty (RIP) and Jack (RIP). Check us out on YouTube | |
12-07-2010, 05:39 PM | #5 | |
www.yorkierescue.com Donating Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Las Vegas & Orange County
Posts: 17,408
| Quote:
__________________ The T.U.B. Pack! Toto, Uni, & Bindi RIP Lord Scrappington Montgomery McLimpybottom aka El Lenguo the Handicapped Ninja 10-12-12 | |
12-07-2010, 05:41 PM | #6 | |
Banning Thread Dictator Donating Member | Quote:
__________________ Mike ~ Doting Dad to Jillie, Harper, Molly, Cooper, Eddie (RIP), Lucy (RIP), Rusty (RIP) and Jack (RIP). Check us out on YouTube | |
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