Did you have to teach your dog to fetch?

[Laurelin]

Just curious. Someone had mentioned teaching their dog to fetch the ball back and I realized that none of my dogs have ever had to be taught to bring the ball back, they just naturally do. (Of the ones that play with toys of course)

[MandyPug]

With the ball? Not really. I had to teach her that it comes ALL the way back before the game continues though.

I had to shape her formal retrieve though and now we practise retrieving everything.

[SaraB]

Yes, classic needed the whole two ball trick, Zuma was clicker trained to retrieve and even though Zinga is a natural I'm still clickering it to strengthen it.

[CaliTerp07]

Lucy has zero retrieve whatsoever. No interest in balls either. She will chase her stuffies when I throw them, but once she gets there she loses interest when she realizes it's not a real squirrel.

[yoko]

Nope didn't have to teach it.

Yoshi loves her toys so when I throw it she automatically runs to it. But Yoshi loves people more so she usually brings it back to the nearest person as quick as she can.

[Doberluv]

Jose` retrieves better than my Lab did. LOL. I kid you not. He's really into the game. But he doesn't pester me if I can't play with him at the moment. I don't really remember if I had to teach him exactly. But must have inadvertently. He just wanted to play with me and he liked running after the ball. So, I guess he figured if he was going to get to run after the ball again and again, he'd have to bring it back to me, the thrower. So, throwing the ball and having me engaged with him were the rewards. And pretty soon he found out how cool it is to bring it back, run after it again over and over. It's just a really fun game for him.

[BostonBanker]

Heavens yes. Meg had to be trained to care about the toy at all. Gusto has to be trained not the take the toy and go have a party by himself. Note 'has'. I still haven't done that.

[SaraB]

Originally Posted by BostonBanker

Heavens yes. Meg had to be trained to care about the toy at all. Gusto has to be trained not the take the toy and go have a party by himself. Note 'has'. I still haven't done that.

That is zinga. She'll bring it back three times and then say screw it and play with it herself. Hence the clickering.

[Laurelin]

Originally Posted by Doberluv

Jose` retrieves better than my Lab did. LOL. I kid you not.

My dad used to raise hunting dogs (labs and pointers) and said Beau had the best natural retrieve of any dog he's ever had. lol Of course that was before we had Mia.

[Finkie_Mom]

Originally Posted by BostonBanker

Heavens yes. Meg had to be trained to care about the toy at all. Gusto has to be trained not the take the toy and go have a party by himself. Note 'has'. I still haven't done that.

LOL Meg = Kimma, and Gusto = Pentti. Bubbles is somewhere in between