Fetching and retrieving

[Evan]

is there any good age to start teaching fetching and retrieving?

and on that note, what's a good way that i might go about doing that?

[Karlin]

Gosh Louie sure is cute! I started from when Jaspar was a puppy, throwing a small toy; if he went and picked it up he got lots of praise. Then I'd start calling him to me when he had the item and when he came even a bit near I'd give lots of praise. Soon he connected the idea that if he brought the item I'd toss it again. I introduced the command 'fetch' then too when I threw the toy. We played this indoors all the time from when he was probably 9 weeks old. Jaspar then taught Leo. Japsar picks up a lot of things from associatioon and context -- he knows 'bring it' and quickly learned 'find it' as well -- when outdoors I sometimes throw his ball where he doesn;t see then give the 'find it' command. He scents all around the field in big circles with Leo chasing him -- he always finds his ball eventually.

Warning: fecth can become a total obsession for Louie though; it is for both mine but especially Jaspar, who will bring bits of paper, earplugs, absolutely anything he finds and put it on my knee to throw for him. Sometimes it drives me nuts! Great way to exercise your puppy though in that time before you can take him out.

[Cathy T]

Warning: fecth can become a total obsession for Louie though; it is for both mine but especially Jaspar, who will bring bits of paper, earplugs, absolutely anything he finds and put it on my knee to throw for him. Sometimes it drives me nuts! Great way to exercise your puppy though in that time before you can take him out.

We start playing ball practically before I've poured my first cup of coffee Luckily they are done after about 1/2 hour and ready for their morning naps. Once Jake starts there's no stopping him. He's is ball obsessed!!

[Maxxs_Mummy]

Yup, Maxx too In fact, we have balls hidden all over the house from where we've pretended it's 'lost'! There is only so much ball throwing that one person can take

We never taught Maxx to 'fetch'. We were playing with him one day and he suddenly brought a toy and dropped it by me then picked it up and sort of threw it with his mouth and ran after it then brought it back again. He kept on doing it until I picked it up and threw it for him. The look on his face was priceless - almost sort of 'Hurrah, she's finally got it!!!!'

I swear this dog has been re-incarnated LOL

[Evan]

thanks for all this guys but i may have a slight problem.

Louie will chase the ball but then he plays with it (using his paw and mouth) and the problem is, he doesn't really know his name atm. He will come if i call him outside but not indoors not sure why!!

[Evan]

i also have to get him used to his collar but i have to get a cat collar for him thought because he has such a smal neck!!

[Maxxs_Mummy]

Did you see the link I sent you for the soft puppy collars?

[Evan]

um where did you send it?

[Karlin]

Maybe in your PMs on the site (in your messages?) or your email link you gave in your membership registration?

[Moviedust]

Hi, all. I'm new, but the post about fetching caught my attention.

I have a 3 month old puppy, and we used to play fetch. However, lately, rather than bring the object back to be rethrown, she heads toward me and then veers off to the side, just out of reach. I never play tug of war, and if we play chase, she's always the chaser (I never chase her). She doesnt want to stop playing when she does this, but she certainly doesnt want to bring the object back! If I call her to me, she drops the object (generally) and comes trotting on over.

Is it possible she just doesnt like to play fetch anymore?