30 minutes to acquire fetch for this pup. Issue was the pup was overly excited for the food reward and became disengaged with the ball once food reinforcement became involved. I worked on creating an association for the food reward with the ball.
Methodology:
1) present ball in hand and say "ball". Pup already knew target and picked this up quickly. Reinforce when ball is touched with nose or mouthed.
2) Once reliably targeting the ball, present empty hand and ball in other hand. Reinforce when the pup targets or mouths the ball.
3) Once reliably targeting ball. Present empty hand and other hand with ball but this time drop the ball and leave that hand presented and empty. Reinforce touching ball. Reinforce looking if learner is having issues touching ball for an approximation.
4) Once reliably targeting on ball repeat process 3 but move reinforcement to open mouth on ball
5) Once reliably mouthing ball repeat step five but toss ball short distance instead of dropping. Mark when ball returned. Approximations as necessary. This pup didn't need approximations at this point.
This is the first attempt after transferring to the client.