Last one I rec'd would not let go. He came to me. I had him letting go on his own in three months, but the K-9 Units do not have the time to take for their dogs. I started with wooden rubber band guns. When he started taking them from me without biting my glove, I had gained his respect. I stopped with the gloves. I was asked by the K-9 Unit to stop teaching him to remove things from people's hands. I did that to put myself on his level. Showed him I was fast, too. Showed him I could hold onto something as lo0ng as I wanted, also. Moved to rubber balls that were hollow and had holes in them. They were about 4" diameter. He would be given one, and his game was for me to try and get it from him. He found that led to shorter time for play. I introduced another ball. Hello. He had one, but then I would produce another. It confused him how to keep one and get the other. I kept pointing at him using my pointer finger showing him to put it down by three quick downward movements while saying his release command.
He would put it down only to pick it up when I moved toward him. I let him keep both and introduced a third ball. It took me four balls, trying to get one away from him before allowing another to play with. He finally would allow me to come get them while he stayed. After that, he and I would be working and he would grab a ball and nudge me with it. He learned from my facial expressions and body language what I wanted him to do, and he did it to please me. Lost him at 8 to cancer.