Did you have to teach your dog to fetch?

No. Because I still need to teach Sam how to play fetch. We started but he gets bored so quickly. He much prefers tug or almost hit the human when you have zoomies.

I had to teach them to stop fetching.

"No, I don't want that."
"Go put it back."
"GOOD LORD WHERE DID YOU GET THAT GO AWAY!"

I've tried teaching Todd and Lucy (and Maddy) but failed. Katy just knew how to do it naturally.

Cohen wasn't big for retrieving when she was a pup. Then I taught her an informal retrieve to hand via targeting and then a formal one via shaping. Now she'll happily retrieve anything from balls to mats to bottle caps.

No, he chased and brought it back from day one. He also figured out to drop it at our feet or in our hands without much help and if we don't pick it up he knows it's not close enough to us. Most of the time he will only bring it back a few times before playing by himself and getting zoomies but I'm fine with that, obviously he finds it more fun and that's the point. Usually when he's done playing by himself he'll bring it back a few more times for more fetch.

I had and have to teach Traveler to bring the toy all the way back for me.

He always loved the chase but he seems to dislike holding toys in his mouth so he would chase, grab it and then drop it and run back to me.

Currently he'll bring it in my vicinity. I had fight tooth and nail to just get him to bring it to shore when we play in water but finally he gets that. On land and with a tennis ball he's pretty good but that was hard.

I'm bad and haven't sat and waiting him out to bring it closer though.

Didgie has no retrieve at all, she's all about the chase. I need to work on that.

Ha! That sounds like Sienna. She loves to chase, and pounce on the toy, but it's 50/50 whether it ends up in her mouth. Sometimes she tries to pick it up, but she won't slow down enough - so she's biting at it as she races by. It's kind of hilarious.

Occasionally if I tell her "did you forget something?" she will go back out and pick it up (or give a repeat performance of NOT picking it up.) The running is definitely the most important thing to her.

No, haha, where's the button to push to make them STOP fetching?

Seriously though, I've reinforced a fetch with praise to let him know he's doing the right thing, but otherwise it's 100% natural.

I remember when I first got Mia she brought her toy up on the bed when I was trying to go to sleep. I got annoyed and threw it away. She sprang off and brought it right back up to me. It took a few tries before I learned my lesson.

Bean's actual my first natural retriever, which is hilarious given how much ball drive Steve has. But while he had the chase/grab gene when he came, I had to actually teach the return half of fetching.

Auggie is one of those who likes to bring it 95% of the way, then stop and drop the ball and smile at me. I tell him "I can't reach it" and he'll pick it up, take a step forward, and drop it again. "I can't reach it." One more step.
Stupid dog.

Payton will sometimes bring it back and sometimes will go run laps like a doofus because he's a doofus.

Georgie isn't much for fetching balls but the other day I was working with the amphibious bumper and she kept bring it back over and over and over. SO GOOD. The only times she wouldn't bring it back was when she would pick it up a bit awkward and keep tripping over it, and she'd get frustrated and leave it laying on the ground LOL. Like "FINE be that way! *runs away*" The bumper is like half her size LOL so I don't blame her. I bought her a bumper of her own so she can still fetch one after I move out.

It's a miracle if I can get Pepper to play with toys at all really. She likes one tennis ball in particular and a stuffie or two. The tennis ball she brings back sorta-kinda. I don't push it with her just because I'm glad she's playing at all.

I guess inadvertently I trained mine to fetch by rewarding them when they walked near me with the toy, but ALL of mine came with a pretty strong desire to chase something that was thrown.

Riley preferred to play "keep away" as a puppy so, yes we trained retrieve. It was part of our obedience class training anyways, although we still haven't gotten to the formal sit and hold in front of me part. After he matured a bit he started to figure it out and played ball quite well after that. Aura used to just chase Riley, until she realized her love of the ball and now she is obsessed with ball and fetch.

No, Dixie has always loved to fetch things since a puppy. We play fetch every day, she loves it! Buster and Rudy are not into fetching.

Oh yeah, Who didn't have an ounce of retrieve in her, she might chase a toy, might have picked it up but not often. But she really had no interest in balls or toys. Her attitude was very much, 'well, you threw it away, you go get it'.
I free shaped it, now she loves to play and will retrieve just about anything, either thrown or placed and then released to it. So far she will retrieve a large flashlight, keys, a roll of tin foil, a lighter and my smokes (lmao) kleenx and/or kleenx box, all toys/balls/tugs, shoes, hats, my purse, sunglasses, a novel, a glass mug and my coffee mug etc. In short if she can pick it up she will, bring it back at speed and to hand.

Dance is a natural retriever. I encouraged and rewarded her so that she would bring things right to me, but she naturally wanted to. I had to shape and train Ripley's retrieve. And Keira doesn't retrieve and lacks toy drive period. I had her retrieving sort of for a while but gave up. It is just not her thing.

I taught my aussie how to fetch a frisbee watching a youtube video.It took awhile though but now shes neorotic about the frisbee.