Training my dog to fetch...I need help

First of all, just to get this straight, my dog's name is Charlie.

My dad and I wanted to teach Charlie how to fetch...kind of. You see, Charlie can catch the ball in the air (we just realized it) and we want him to do that, except he doesn't bring the ball back to us. But we also play a game with him where we use the ball and try to take it away from eachother. I would try to get it from Charlie, he would try to get it from me, he doesn't bite though. We tried to train him once, but then, we played that game with him so now he won't bring him back anymore. I was wondering, maybe I shouldn't play that with him anymore, but I just want to know what's the best way to train him to bring the ball back. I think the way I trained him wasn't very effective.

This advice I was given on this is to make sure you have "come" down pat. When he comes all the time, throw the ball and call him to you when he gets it. Hopefully he'll come to you with the ball. Then DO NOT try to take it from his mouth. He'll think this is a game. Instead. Keep him next to you until he drops it. This may take awhile this first few times. I don't know how great this advice is, my dogs don't fetch either. They chase and come though.

I think I have a site that can help you... looking it up... http://www.clickerlessons.com/lessons.html

That site is my newest fav. It's great. It doesn't have a section specifically for "fetch" that I can see but the techniques would be a great start.

Ok. Now listen to what everyone else has to say.

When I was teaching my oldest fetch I had similar problems for awhile. In the beginning she would run to the ball, pick it up and then run around like a fool who just found a winning lottery ticket. That fixed itself after we played the game awhile. The "come" command works easily with that now.

After that was getting her to drop it. At first she would run back and then just kind of run around me and never drop the ball. First, to get her to stay in one spot I would use sit, then to get her use to dropping it I would reward her for "fetching" and "coming" with a treat. She gladly dropped the ball.

After awhile it got pretty routine, she fetches, returns, sits and drops the ball til I throw it again.

I'm not a trainer, but thats what worked for me.

Thanks.

He does the "come" thing good, but he would drop the ball before he comes.He never knows that he has to come wto me WITH the ball.

hehe TOki does similar things too. He would drop the ball too early. I except the ball in front of not 1 step away from me. HUm.. the command come would not work on Toki. Usually when I tell him to come it's because his in trouble so if his biting on something I tell him to come to take it away from him. But everyones technique is different.

If it makes you feel any better, my Bear, who was beautifully behaved - a certified therapy dog in fact (GSD/Akita mix) absolutely would NOT play fetch. He would go get anything I asked him to and bring it to me, but if I threw something and told him to get it he just looked at me with a very disgusted look that said plainly, "if you wanted it why did you throw it away?" and walk off to do something sensible.

I've heard of dogs like that. Some breeds love to fetch and others don't. Fetching is not a mandatory thing for me. Unless I took up pigeon shooting or something. Can you imagine! LOL

I'd like to point out that you may think that your dog is coming well but it may be that he just chooses to come most of the time. He may not come when there are distractions or even if he is scared.

I'm going to post this link again and put a quote there so you can see what it's all about. I think it would be very useful.

http://www.clickerlessons.com/recall.html

She calls it "recall"
The Recall is one of the most important commands, yet, it is the one that is often the most unreliable. Many puppy owners notice happily that their puppy always (or almost always) seems to come when called, so they think they have that one covered & train no further for it. However, just about every young puppy naturally hangs about the leader and comes easily - it's a survival thing. But when they hit adolescence? Suddenly, the rest of the world is a whole lot more interesting than you are! ...

Well, the reason my dad and I wanted to teach him fetch was because he is on a dog run, and we want to get him some excerceise without US getting excercise.