How To Teach Your Dog To Fetch

Believe it or not, I have a Labrador Retriever that I had to train to play fetch. Most people incorrectly assume all Labrador Retrievers are simply born knowing how to fetch but this is certainly not always the case as I quickly found out with my adopted dog. I was also under the assumption that she would surely know how to fetch but sure enough the first time I threw a ball for her, she looked at me like I was crazy. It was as if she couldn’t understand why I would do such a thing and was even more perplexed by the fact that I asked her to go get it. She seemed to think I had thrown it so I should be the one to go get it. Afterwards I did some research on the subject of teaching a dog how to fetch and it was then that I discovered not all retrievers are born knowing how to fetch. Some of them lack the ability as a result of poor breeding, some of them simply have no interest because of their particular temperament and still others may have been conditioned not to fetch in a previous home. I adopted my Labrador Retriever as an adult so I cannot be sure if she showed any retrieval instinct as a puppy or if her lack of interest in retrieving was result of some training by her previous owner. In this article I will explain how I trained my adult Labrador Retriever to play fetch and will also explain other techniques which can be used to teach a dog to fetch.

In training my own dog to fetch, I took advantage of her food motivation and used treats to reward her in a positive reinforcement training method. I started out by holding her close to me and playing with the ball in front of her before tossing a ball about five feet away from her. I then gave her the fetch command and released her. At first she went after the ball but did not pick it up and bring it back to me. However, I rewarded her with treats and praise for even touching the ball with her nose. This helped to develop an interest in the ball because she was not receiving treats just for touching the ball. After awhile she was willing to pick up the ball and I offered even more treats and praise. As the training progressed she began to go after the ball, pick it up and bring it back to me when I tossed the ball a short distance. I continued to reward her each time she was successful but also began tossing the ball even farther away. At first she was successful but as I tossed the ball farther and farther she began to retrieve the ball but then drop it before she got all the way back to me. When this happened I would say, “Uh-oh where is your ball?” and would not offer a treat. She quickly learned the only way she would get her reward was by bringing the ball back to me. She would then either go back for her ball if she dropped it or she would not drop it in the first place.

Using treats as a reward is one way to train a dog to play fetch but other dog owners and trainers use a baited ball to teach a dog to retrieve. Small balls which have an opening are ideal for this because treats can be placed directly into the ball. This is often effective because the dog is enticed to retrieve the ball because it contains the treats. However, care should be taken to ensure the dog is not able to remove the treats from the ball. This is an important aspect of the training process because otherwise the dog will not be motivated to bring the ball back to the owner. If the dog is able to remove the treats by himself he may eagerly run to retrieve the ball but then will remove the treats and consume them and have no motivation to bring the ball back to the owner. However, if the dog is not able to remove the treats, he will be more inclined to bring the ball or toy back to the owner. Once the dog fetches the object and brings it back to the owner, the owner should remove the treats and give them to the dog while also offering praise for performing the desired behavior. In this way the dog learns the object of the game is to fetch the ball and bring it all the way back to the owner.

Some other owners train a dog to play fetch on leash. They may start out with the dog on the leash, toss the ball a short distance and then run with the dog to retrieve the object. This may be helpful in situations in which the dog is apprehensive about leaving the owner. However, this type of training is not the most effective way to train a dog to play fetch because it involves additional steps in the process. For example the dog first learns to play the game on leash and then has to transition to learning to fetch without the use of a leash. Some owners will use a retractable leash which lengthens to ease this transition but the process will still require additional steps to be truly effective and teach a dog to fetch without the aid of a leash.