Mind Your Pawz

10/23/2026

Another variation of how we teach “drop it” 🍖

For now I’m using food to reward him for releasing the toy, I’m pairing the cue “drop” with the timing of him releasing the toy, and then tossing the toy again…

The release is not always a natural part of the prey sequence for many dogs, so it can be helpful to use a trade in the beginning stages of the retrieve.

Puppy Fane seems to enjoy the game, so I expect that very soon the toss will become reinforcing enough to keep the behavior strong 🐾

10/16/2026

10/15/2026

He does stop moving …briefly 🤣💗

10/14/2026

Fane has been learning lots of foundation behaviors so today we practiced mixing them up and we even added in our new rollover trick that we just started teaching a day ago 😍🐾

10/14/2026

Our new foster dog Bizzy found the toy bin last night and entertained herself (while we watched the Flyers lose again 😭)

She’s only been with us for 5 days, but so far it looks like this relaxed side of her comes out after she’s had both body and brain exercised. She is a cuddler but she is indeed a busy girl 💗

Bizzy is located in Maryland and is available for adoption through Mid Atlantic Border Collie Rescue. www.mabcr.org



10/12/2026

First session of rollover with Fane … he’s so small I think he’ll nail this trick in no time 🙌

10/11/2026

Teaching one method of Drop It with Puppy Fane…

I like to teach this from several directions, sometimes with a toy for toy exchange, and sometimes with retrieves or with tuggy games, and sometimes I use this method to create a positive association with the behavior of opening their mouth and releasing the item to hand.

In our training games it’s always a win-win… They release the item and get a treat AND they still get the item back🙌

These are “deposits” in our bank account - some days we may not be able to give the item back. But if we make enough deposits…we’re still good 🙌💗🐾

10/10/2026

The dogs’ breakfast prep is way more complicated than the humans!🤪🐾