# Problem teaching Hold It



## KAE (Jun 21, 2010)

I cannot get Rocky to hold an object for longer than a split second. All he wants to do is grab it and throw it. I read something about holding your thumb under his mouth or something like that, but when I do that, he just picks his head up. If I just ignore the action, he will get bored and start to not get interested in the object. What am I doing wrong?

Here is a SHORT video of what he is doing


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## KAE (Jun 21, 2010)

Nothing?? Not one person has one tip?


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

This shows it in steps, it might help. (or not)


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## Molly+Eva (May 19, 2011)

*Beem there, done that*

I'm having the same problem right now with my girl. It was easy to teach her to grab the object but getting her to hold it for more than one second is the problem. 
All of the tutorials I've seen like the Tab video teach the hold through the handler holding the object for the dog. I've found, for my dog at least, having the object on the ground forces her to hold the object a little longer because she has to grab it then look at me whereas when I'm holding the object in front of her she is essentially looking at me already. 
That said, she still isn't "holding" it but we've moved from a one second hold to about a 4 second hold. Progress is progress


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## terrance250 (Mar 22, 2011)

I don't know if it would work for a GSD, but you might try looking into what is called 'Force Fetching' for bird dogs. 'Hold' is first stage of force fetching & relativly easy to teach.

I've been through the process with a Labrador Retriever, and had excellent results. They are supposed to hold a rubber dummy during hold, but I had much better luck with a soft paint roller.

Might be worth looking into if you don't have any luck with anything else?


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