Dog Obedience Training Blog
Training Dog's To FINALLY Fetch
I hear this comment a lot when I’m out at the park with Bauer, my Golden Retriever throwing him his tennis ball…
“Man, I wish my dog would play fetch… He’ll go get the ball, but he never brings it back”
And when I hear this, I always give the person a courteous laugh, but inside I feel sad for them. Playing fetch with your dog can play such an important role in their physical and mental health.
And so many people think that their dog’s wont fetch.
But the truth of the matter is that ALL dogs could learn how to play fetch in a matter of days or weeks by just following a principle I call “Motivation Manipulation”.
Motivation Manipulation is about becoming more aware of what is motivating your dog to do the things he does… and to be in tune to those motivating factors at all times.
For example, my dog didn’t know how to play fetch when I first got him either. I had to work at it.
I would throw the ball to my dog, and then ask him to bring it back, which he never did.
Instead he would go chase after a ball I threw and then wonder what the heck to do with it. What lots of people do at this stage of training a dog to fetch is go after their dog.
Let’s think about this from the dog’s perspective for a moment. What motivating factors are making the dog behave the way he was.
- He WAS motivated to chase the ball, that’s why he went after it. So in this case it must have been fun to chase. And I don’t know about you, but get a bunch of dogs together at the park and they love chasing things. I think it’s just in their DNA.
- So why didn’t the dog bring the ball back? Well, what would motivate the dog to bring the ball back. What part of bringing it back to you is motivating in any way if he’s never brought it back before.
- And if you decide to go after your dog, be careful… this might actually become a fun game of keep away, and motivate your dog to NEVER come back.
Do you see how lots of motivating factors are keeping your dog from playing fetch appropriately?
So how do you train a dog to fetch an item and be motivated to bring it back? That’s where the principal of “Motivation Manipulation” comes in.
In this case, we would look at exactly the behaviors we want a dog to do, in this case we want him to chase a ball, fetch it, bring it back to us, and drop it at our feet, right?
Most of us don’t normally have to motivate our dogs to chase the ball, some might, but for 90% of dog owners that isn’t usually the problem… and that part doesn’t need extra motivation.
It’s when the dog fetches the ball we throw that all of a sudden he doesn’t have any motivation to bring it back to you. So… dun, dun, dun (dramatic sounding noise 
We insert EXTRA motivation here to make up for the lack of motivation.
a.k.a. yummy ass treats!
A good piece of meet is usually strong enough motivation to get any dog to come on back to you.
You’ll probably find that in the beginning you shouldn’t throw the ball to far away, and only make your dog fetch a ball back to you 5 feet or so. And let him know that if he doesn’t bring the ball back, he doesn’t get a treat.
Continue to refine this process until your dog knows that he actually has to drop the ball directly at your feet or their is NO food reward.
And remember, your dog won’t be perfect when you start, he’ll see you holding the treat and might drop the ball, or only bring it back half way… that’s perfectly fine and normal.
Just make sure you start with easy retrieves at short distances before you work on training your dog to fetch things from a LONG way away.
Don’t want to always have treats on hand? Not a problem.
Remember, I called this ‘Motivation Manipulation’ not just adding motivation.
You see, over time your dog will realize that he LOVES playing fetch, and for many dog’s that love of fetch is stronger then the love of food. Which means we only have to use food for a short period of time until the dog realizes that if he wants to fetch the ball again (assuming he loves to fetch) he has to bring it back to you.
It’s just that we trick him to bring it back to us in the beginning with food. And it’s the act of throwing the ball again right after he’s eaten his treat, that then trains the dog to bring it back for another fetch (where fetching becomes it’s OWN reward)
Pretty cool that it works this way huh?
So if your dog doesn’t fetch, head out to the park this week and give this method a try and leave me a comment back on this post of how it worked or if you have any questions.
Happy Fetching!
Chet
Nice article! I enjoyed it! Makes sense too! Now, is is possible to use this method somehow to get my fast Border Collie to catch frisbee?
And what do I do when my Black Lab ignores me and just walks off (when she is out n the field)?
Thanks!
Michael
Santa Clarita, CA
[Reply]
@ April 1st, 2009 at 03:29I’ve been a groomer for 39 years. No carpal tunnel or other health issues as a result, but I have been bitten on a number of occasions, but in that time only 3 occasions sent me to the hospital. The biggest problem I see with new groomers starting out is that the grooming schools in my area do a really poor job of preparing students for actually working in the industry. At best they’ve done a few breeds and a few different haircuts. Unlike grooming school where you will have most of the day to do one dog, in a shop environment you will need to be able to turn out 5-7 dogs a day in order to make a living at it. Mosr shops pay commission, and if you can’t turn out several dogs a day you may earn less than minimum wage. Grooming is hard work. Lifting, bending, cleaning up after “accidents”, keeping your various body parts out of the mouth of a dog who does not like being handled, etc. all take a toll.
[Reply]
@ September 14th, 2009 at 13:20