some questions about Retrieve Training

Today I made up my mind to take retrieve as my next training target.

I am reading this excellent tutorial about that:
http://www.dogscouts.com/retrieve.shtml

But I am confused how to get the work done with 1 person. E.g. when I practise "give" with him, I need to use both hands to open his month and put a ball inside, then say "give", take the ball and treat. I cannot find a spare hand to click at that moment : )

99 can not do a pretty good retrieve, but limited to one particular plastic ball he loves most. That why I need to start all over again. But since 99 know the shape of the whole motion, is there any shortcut available for me? My biggest problem is he will not go for the ball when I have food in hand.

Would be helpful if someone can shares a few lines about the topic.

Tks

I'm not sure if you mean a formal, obedience style retrieve, or just a game of fetch. If it is the formal style you are after, ignore whatever I say . There are plenty of obedience people here who can help you.

I taught Meg to play fetch because I wanted another way to exercise her. She had very little interest in any toy at the time, but I did teach her by myself. I never tried to pry open her mouth to put the toy in (I used a tennis ball, although she will play with anything now). I would just roll the ball lightly around me while I sat on the ground. At first, I would click and treat just for her focusing her eyes on the ball for a second. She pretty quickly started touching it with her nose.

The hardest step for us was her actually picking the ball up. She's not a retrieving breed (you may have better luck with your poodle!), and she just didn't seem to get it. It took a lot of quick clicking, catching any little moment when her open mouth touched the ball. Once she would pick it up in her mouth consistently, she was pretty quick to catch on to bringing it back. Sometimes she would drop the ball to come back to me, but I wouldn't treat, and would just ask "What did you forget?" and point back to the ball.

I hope this helps a bit. Good luck with it. I love playing fetch, and I finally have a dog who loves it just as much!

Tks Banker for your response. I am unsure about the difference between formal retrieve and game...

Probably my 99 can play the game very well. I have a plastic ball for him. Firstly he just played by himself. But when he feels bored, he will press the ball on my leg to ask me to throw. Then he trained me to play retrieve game with him :yikes:



But that is not perfect. He will do that on a particular yellow ball only. And sometimes he will play for a minute before coming back to me

I tried to follow the link I posted above last night and have no luck.

Any other friends here could advise?

I like doing it this way.

http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/retrieve.html

29 steps!!!??? gonna try. tks alot