I've been working on teaching Trinkett, my greyhound, to retrieve. It's being interesting... she's not the most eager dog (for example, she prefers to work lying down!), but we're making progress. I'm rewarding her with peanut butter, which is also partly why it's going slower. Takes her a while to chew and swallow the peanut butter. But here's the odd thing I mentioned up in the header... she takes long breaks where she licks her front legs (mainly) and her chest (a little). I'm wondering if this is a self-comforting mechanism... a way of taking a break from a task that is slightly unusual for her. I've tried distracting her, and she just ignores me. But if a wait a bit, she will stop and refocus on the task. On the other hand, since she is in the infamous "sphinx" pose (http://www.dog-breeds-explained.info...greyhound.jpg), and doing a lot of licking to get the peanut butter down, it may be that she just occasionally gets the leg and then decides it needs to be cleaned up. I'm going to try tomorrow to use something besides the peanut butter for the reward, and see what happens, but thought I would get some opinions from the good folk here as well.
(In case anyone is interested, she's gotten the targeting down well. I'm using an empty water bottle, and when it is put in front of her, she is eager to nose or lick it. As long as it's in reach... no need to actually get up and go to it! She will go to either side to get the bottle, so eventually I think she may decide walking over to it is worthwhile, but right now I'm not pushing the issue. I'm currently being a bit stymied on getting her to try and bite/grab it, but figure that will come eventually. This is mostly to get her mind working, and get her interested in the idea of learning new things, so I am not too concerned about the laid-back approach that she is taking.)