"No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich."
-- Louis Sabin
A common beginner’s problem when playing fetch with our dog is he returns to a distance of a few feet with the ball and then runs off. This is natural for those dogs that retrieve readily on their own. Remember many breeds don’t like to pick up items nor to carry them so if your dog retrieves without being taught, consider yourself fortunate.
Now back to the dog that prefers to play keep away. The dog views the ball or whatever item you throw to be an object of prey. His natural sense is to go and get the prey and to bring it back to show you what he caught but not to share it with you because he would then be giving up his catch.
The easy way to teach Buddy to bring the ball to you is to put him on his leash and toss the ball a few feet in front of him and encourage him to “get the ball”. As soon as he picks it up call him to you enthusiastically and reach down and say “give it.” With the hand with which you are going to receive the ball you offer him a generous treat and calmly say “trade you.” If you have been using treats for training up to this point he’ll catch on in a heartbeat. Swap the ball for a small treat for a few sessions and he’ll soon be coming in real close with the ball in anticipation of trading for a goodie.
When you start to teach the retrieve it really helps if you can utilize a hallway and don’t throw the ball too far. It will be much easier for the student to catch onto the process of getting the object and returning it to you instead of running around with it.
DON’T THROW THE BALL TOO FAR TO START WITH! The farther the dog is away from you the less chance you have of having any influence over his actions. Start small. There’s lots of time for the long fetch after you’ve really aced the little ones
The funny part to me is that some dogs love to play fetch while others couldn't be bothered. My old chow Dexter used to look at me like "well, you threw it obviously you don't want it any more, why do I?". He wasn't into it at all. Travis loves all things toy related, he'll play ball either with you or without you! Love, Karen
ReplyDeleteThere are probably as many breeds that don't like to "take, hold, carry, and give" (that's the entire retrieve process) as there are who love it. In 30 years of Dobies I've never had one who I didn't have to teach to take an object and hold it and then progress to carry and give. By the same token most of my experience with Labs have had them retrieving at about 8 weeks and sometimes less.
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