Mocha Molly ~ We adopted Molly in March of 2006. Molly was kind of slovenly. She sat crookedly, smelled oily, and had a dense dry coat. She showed all the signs of having several litters of puppies. She knew most commands but was easily distracted getting a distraught look every time there was a loud noise. She doesn’t care to retrieve unless it’s her Kong. We have tried. She didn’t like going hunting, wouldn’t pick up the birds, and finds no joy in what she was bred for.
Molly got her name when we adopted her because we liked it better than Mocha. As in Molly Brown being a brown Labrador. She is often Mocha Molly. “Moooolllly!” as it’s usually said trying to capture her attention. She is a special girl, somewhat slow but always loving.
That was then....
June 8, 2010
On the quest to "fix" this dog she is training me how to train her. I'm thinking I can't put any pressure on Molly until she has so a many uneventful retrieves that she forgets that pain comes after the "F" word. She is also doing some things I never trained her to do. Sit on a whistle (sometimes), turn and go back when I, in knee jerk fashion, did it expecting nothing. Instead of "Fetch" when she blinks the bumper I'm squeaking "get it, get it, get it". It's all fun and games.
The other thing I did was to play with her last. I see a real difference in each dog depending on the order I work with them. Lucy goes first because the anticipation makes her insane and unworkable for 5 min. then she's turning blue, hot and tired working toward heat exhaustion. Next are the lurchers at lure coursing or harness for a bike ride or jog, then Molly. She has this look of "what about MEEE" when I let the other dogs out and she's left behind. Then when I do get her out she is wound up. Her weird aversions are less evident, she didn't tremble and the invisible hot spot next to me is forgotten. She really made me smile when she went for her last sight blind at medium speed for her, slight hesitation then took off to the spot. I'm working a thrown bumper into the mix and she picked up a couple bumpers Charlie threw at 40 yards.
I hope I can take her to a picnic hunt test next year and show off a dog that some unknown "trainer" ruined and threw away and secretly wish they would be there and feel remorse. Molly will be 8 years old
When our chocolate Lab rescue Molly would not retrieve, seemed afraid of the bumpers and even the idea of sitting in heel I gave up. She was 3-4 yrs old and it was 3 years ago. The old force techniques did not work on her. One day when we were training Lucy at a pond, Molly went off to the other end of the pond, we kept an eye on where she was but were concentrating on Lucy. In the mean time Molly was Hoover-ing all the sticks out of the pond and putting them on the shore. I figured out that someone had force fetched her badly on land but never made it to water. Ideally you want full compliance on land so by the time you get to water the dog is away from you and conditioned to respond to your voice, hand and whistle commands. I didn’t work with her very much other then to take her to dock dogs where she was wild and jumping 20'. I lost interest in forcing her to do something she did not want to do only playing fetch with her a couple times a month- maybe.
Today I tried a sight blind; several bumpers placed where she could see them, and sent her. Blinds are not as exciting to dogs because they are not moving, just sitting there, static. We backed up so her retrieves were 25, 40 and 50 yards. I said "back" and she left somewhat slowly she gained speed as she realized where she was going, returning holding the bumper perfectly, came to heel position, sat & delivered to hand. BIG GRIN
2008-Molly has become a DockDog! In 2008 she jumped 20 feet. This year, 2009 she managed 18 feet at the first jump. With more practice maybe she'll beat last year's record.
2007-This year she started playing the fetch game with her Kong and seems to have a little more interest in retrieving the bumper, for me, but not for her. She is truly doing it for me. I’m going to go slowly with retrieving and see if we can rekindle some interest. If she does not ever retrieve a bird, so be it. We will go at her pace. Now her coat is dark glossy brown, she is keen on finding things, and sometimes stands up to Daisy over her belongings.