So, we have this charming little dog, Olive. Olive is higher-energy than our other dogs, and could use a hobby. Fetching would be ideal, as we have lots of running area in our yard. However, none of our dogs has ever shown the slightest interest in balls or bringing them to us. You throw a ball, and they completely ignore it. They don’t chew on balls lying around the house. Zero interest. But I think if she ever got the concept, she’d love it.
Is it worth trying to teach her this? She’s pretty trainable and bright.
I was worried about my pup when she was under a year old and seemed to have no interest. Now I wish she’d stop on occasion, before I go mad. Can’t remember exactly what worked, but the all-mighty Kong is hard to beat. There’s a cavity for special flavored stuffing (I find you can also push a treat inside and it’ll take hours for the dog to get out) and the shape makes it roll and bounce on its own with just a little nudge from a snout.
With my older dog, I tried playing fetch with a dog friend of hers who was very into chasing balls. She readily picked up everything else this dog friend did, why should fetch be different?
Sadly, she decided it was more fun to play defense. For the rest of her life, she’d get all excited to play fetch only when there was another dog she could clobber as it went to fetch the ball (she’d be called for interference every time). Seriously, my little sheltie would go plowing head first into big labs, retrievers, etc. This does not make for a good dog park citizen. :rolleyes:
Sometimes, they do catch on. My sister’s dog, you could toss a ball and it’d hit him in the face, and he’d look at you like, “…bwuh?” Now, one of his favorite games is a rapid fire game of catch to see how many he can get in a row. I don’t remember what the “aha” moment was for him though. We kept throwing balls, to him, or past him, or out across the yard; threw them high, threw them low. Figure out what catches her attention most, and repeat that. Then, slightly alter the game as she shows interest.
I have a 14-year-old dog who loves fetch and chase games and has since I got her at 3 months old. I’ve since lived with four other dogs with no interest (only one of them a permanent member of the family), and couldn’t manage to train a love of fetch into any of them. I could teach them to retrieve an object I threw for a reward, but it was just a trick to them, about as much fun as shaking hands or doing a sit-stay (which is to say, usually only as fun as the treat they got for doing it - only one of these dogs has been the eager-to-please type).
I taught my damn cat to retrieve and he loves to play fetch now, so it’s not for lack of trying!
“Fetch” is just not in some dogs’ vocabulary (example, our Cavalier King Charles spaniels who never had the slightest interest in chasing objects and retrieving them).
Labradors, especially the current model are another story.
For whatever reason my mother’s dogs only fetched a ball if it was hit with a bat or tennis racket. I don’t know if this was instinctive or learned, but you might give it a try. I think one of the issues was that the dogs focused on the throwers hands and didn’t realize the ball was being released if it was being thrown.
The downside of this is one of my mother’s dogs got hit with a bat when she went for the ball mid bat swing (she was fine, and too stupid to even be startled).
Blackjack is willing to fetch a thrown object. He’ll go get it, bring it back, and if you throw it again. He’ll look up at you like it’s your turn. It’s not his kind of game though. You-can’t-get-me is a game he can play for hours.
I’ve had two dogs. My first, the late Wally, was a Miniature Schnauzer. He was a dog with what you might call…dignity. Very sociable, certainly, but fetching?
Forget it. He simply had no interest in the game, and I distinctly recall (hey, this was circa age 12, 20 years ago) trying to teach him to fetch – or at least to try to pique his interest in thrown objects. It was just never his thing.
Fast-forward. My current dog, Charlie, is a “feist” (really! rat-terrier spinoff!), and Charlie lives to attack (I mean, chase) objects. Ball? Snowball? Basketball? Length of hemp rope? Bungee cord? If it’s an (a) physical object, and (b) someone has drawn his attention to it by moving it around…he’ll attack it without mercy. He’ll then do his best to keep YOU from getting it back.
My take? It seems to be innate, to a point. Our terrier (and I’ve heard this about various breeds) treats any thrown toy as “prey”…I think. Why? Well, he does the death-shake when he gets the toy. Its cute when its a Kong rubber thing, not so cute when its a squirrel
Instinct, goes my vote.
P.S. digging appears to be another one of these behaviors. Dogs do it as play, but they’ll also gladly dig up a…badger if they get the chance.
I can see how this would be very good exercise…for me.
We used to have a Weimaraner who would fetch anything you were willing to throw for HOURS. She was the most tireless dog I’ve ever met. I think if one of our current dogs would give it a try, the others (we have three) might pick up on it, but with no one to model the behavior, I don’t know.
I think putting Olive near another dog that likes to fetch may be the best way. I live in Chicago and it seems when one dog fetches the other dogs all want to get into the act. The dogs at the parks seem to imitate each other very quickly.
I wouldn’t know if that behaviour continues when the other dogs aren’t around though.
Yeah, the retriever brain is one large lobe containing “Throw the ball!” over and over and over, and a smaller lobe for processing smells. And a tiny vestigial organ that says, “Stare at ducks.”
Renee, what games does Olive play? I ask because that’s a possible route to getting her to fetch.
Simone has no retriever genes that I’m aware of, and showed zero interest in retrieving a ball. I’d throw it and she’d turn her head from me to look at where it landed, then turn back with a quizzical expression, as if to say, “Huh, will you look at that? It’s over there now.” She would catch a tossed ball, but then set it down and stare at me.
She is, however, one of the bully breeds, and there’s about two thousand years of selection for “grip and hold on” behavior in the bulldog genes. So she’s deeply emotionally invested in tug-of-war. She will pull and pull and pull on the toy (we’ve done the “lift the entire dog off the ground by her teeth” trick to show her off) and stare into your eyes with romantic intensity. Eventually her eyes will glaze over and she’ll sink down and gnaw on the toy as if hypnotized until it’s gone or until I take it away to save it for more play.
So one day, when she was pulling for dear life on the tug toy, it occurred to me to try throwing the tug toy, instead of a ball. She has a reason to bring a tug toy back, because it’s much more fun if a human is holding the other end. Simone watched with intensity, then ran over to it and started chewing on it…and I walked over and picked the other end up and gave her the “release” command, then gave it back to her after she released it. Slowly I established a link between her offering the toy to me and getting to play tug, and I kept tossing the toy a short distance so she’d have to move to pick it up, and soon enough she began to figure out she could chase it, bring it back, and tugging, glorious tugging, would ensue!
Now she will readily fetch the tug toy, for a while (she’s still no retriever!), then settle down to gnaw on it. When she stops, I always walk over and make her give it back to me (“release!”) before I return it to her – the idea being, to reinforce the concept that the toy should come back to the human on each retrieval.
But she still doesn’t fetch balls. I’m guessing she just doesn’t see the point – a tug toy needs a human on the other end to work, a ball can just be chewed on. However, she does love to run after her tug toys. I use one of those tough stuffed cloth rings, rolling it along the floor or sailing it like a frisbee.
If Olive likes tug, maybe you can try something like that?
This worked with our Sheltie (our other dog LOVES fetch and will play it until she pukes), but he’s almost always around her, and he’s pretty half-assed about it.
He will bring things back if our other dog isn’t immediately around, but he’s only mildly enthusiastic about it. Of course, if we didn’t have another dog, I don’t think he’d be more than mildly enthusiastic about anything but sleeping and growing ever fatter.
I’d like to know too. My Jack Russel loves to run after a ball and then run around with it n her moth, but she really doesn’t get the ‘bring it back to the human’ part.
All it takes is proper motivation. My dog will do quantum physics if we give him enough treats.
Simply take a treat, let the dog sniff it, then toss it. The dog will chase the treat. Eventually you can replace the treat with a ball, and use a treat to lure the dog back. I’m not saying it will only take one lesson, but anything that combines playing with her master, running and treats is damn near irrestiable to a dog.
Sailboat, she was a rescue dog that we got as an adult (she’s about 3 now). I suspect she didn’t have a lot of human interaction as a puppy, and she doesn’t seem to understand playing with humans much. She will play-bow and run around with people, but if you try to play tug of war she just gives you the toy and looks wounded, like you’ve punished her. She loves to wrestle with the other dogs and the cat (who is very patient). She will sometimes chew on soft toys or bones, but doesn’t try to make them squeek or anything, just nibbles them.
This I could maybe see working. I’ll give it a try. She will catch a treat as long as it’s already been established that we’re throwing something she wants to eat.
Our Lab has no idea what fetch is. If you throw something she usually gives us a look like she can’t understand why we are being so rude as to throw her stuff around. She may or may not go after it and will never return it.
I’m sure if we worked at it we could probably train her to do it but honestly I think in the long run it would end up being tiresome for us. As some people mentioned up thread it could become an endless game of throw it again!..throw it again!..throw it again!
It’s something I might consider if she needed more exercise but she runs around in the yard for hours and usually the neighbor’s dog comes over and they play together until they get tired and take a nap so it’s all good.
Mine comes from similar stock. She’s a lab/chow mix and will not fetch to save her life. She was taught to bring in the newspaper, but she needs a treat to give it up willingly.
