Today I'm going to talk to you about the value of teaching your dog how to retrieve. Now, this is something that I do every single day with my dogs in order to keep them in shape, and to exercise them.
But did you know this is also a fabulous game to use to help establish leadership and to build a great relationship with your dog. Today I'm going to go over a few key factors on teaching your dogs how to do a retrieve.
On your mark, okay, ready, get set, go, get the
Ready, Bee, wanna show them?
ball! (clapping) Good girl, bring it here! Bingo! Good girlie! This is seven-month old Beeline and my name is Kayl McCann.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs. Get that thing! (guitar strum) (puppy yips) Before you begin, you may consider putting your dog on a leash.
How do I teach my puppy to fetch and return?
What I've also done is put my toy on a leash so that I have control of both variables. Now before doing this, I've already established that my puppy really likes this toy so make sure you have an idea of what types of toy your puppies like, whether it's a tug toy or a rubber-sized type toy like this.
Sometimes dogs don't like to retrieve because they aren't motivated by the type of toy or reward that you're using, so experiment.
Make sure you find something your dog likes. One of the main reasons why I've put my toy on a leash is so that I can make this look like dying prey.
That's a lot of fun for the dog so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get Beeline engaged with the toy right now just by moving and whipping this toy around and letting her chase it, ready, Bee? What's this, ready?
Oooh, so puppies like when things move so I'm gonna get it ready. What's this, shhh. What's this, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it.
At what age can you teach a puppy to fetch?
Whoo, she caught it already! So I'm just gonna move it away from her and if she happens to let go of the toy, I'm gonna start whipping it around again.
Whoo, there it goes, whooop, whoop! Ha, ha, ha, she's pretty quick! Good girl. This is the first part of the retrieve. I wouldn't actually throw the toy.
I would just engage her in a game of tug by keeping the toy very active and exciting. Good girl, get that.
Now that I've established that Bee really likes this toy, the next thing that I want to do is start teaching the retrieve portion of it. Now what I've done is I've actually taken two leashes and I've attached them to this toy so I have a really long line to use to control the toy.
Why won't My dog bring back the ball when playing fetch?
I know she really likes this toy so I'm going to throw it out, but to prevent her from running around my yard with it, I have a line attached so that when she picks it up, I can use it to reel her in back in towards me, teaching her to go get the toy and bring it directly back to me, and I would just repeat this process a few times until I don't have to assist her with it any longer and she's doing it a bit more independently.
'kay, Bee, you ready? Wanna get this toy, ready, ready, ready? So what I'm gonna do is hold on to her, make sure I have the end of my line ready. Ready, set, oh, she's ready! Come here, come here, come here!
Set, get the toy, get the toy.
Good girl, whoop, whoop, whoop! Bring it here, bring it here, bring it here. Yay, good girl! Now when she gets back, I don't wanna take the toy away from her right away.
I want her to be rewarded and have fun for bringing the toy to me, so I need to take a second to play a little game of tug.
Oh, that was a good puppy. Okay, let's try it again. Are you ready? So I'm gonna get the end of my line.
Ready, set, get the toy! Good girl, bring it here, bring it here, yay! Good girl, very nice, good! We just repeat this process until the two of us got tired. Good girl!
I've just done a bunch of repetitions with me holding the leash and she's been really good about bringing the toy directly back, so I'm gonna progress now by throwing the toy a little bit further away, and I'm gonna start dropping the leash. If at any time I feel like she's not bringing the toy directly back to me, I'm not gonna chase after the dog and the toy.
That could be probably the worst thing you could do.
When you chase a dog, what they typically do is keep running and just turn it into a big catch-me-if-you-can game, so instead, I'm gonna try and get to my line so I can go back to directing here with the leash in my direction. Hopefully I won't have to do that though.
How do you teach a dog to catch?
You ready Miss Bee? Ready, set, get it (clapping). Girl, bring it here, bring it here, yay! What a good girl! Always lots of play and praise when you're puppy brings the toy back and try it again.
Ready, get set, get the toy! Good girl, bring it here (claps), whooo! Good girl! I think it's safe to say she likes this game.
Good girl, yes, very nice.NOW
once you're able to do this with the leash on the ground, obviously the next step would be able to progress to not having the toy attached to anything, but it's not gonna hurt anything by having the leash attached for a little bit longer just to be on the safe side, especially if you're in a busy location where there tends to be lots of distractions.
Good girl, yeah.
Once you've had a lot of reliability playing with the toy with your dog while the toy is attached to a line, you may consider taking the line off of the toy, but to ensure you have control, you could always attach this long line to your dog.
That way if they decide to make any poor choices or they get a little distracted, you have a way to keep them safe and under control.
The last component that I think is really important to talk about is how you move your body.
In order to get her to bring the toy back to me quickly, I always wanna move away from her to try to encourage that chase drive, so this last retrieve I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna throw the toy out.
Once she gets the toy, I'm gonna call her and I'm gonna run away and that's gonna ignite her chase drive. She's gonna wanna come back to me quickly and then we can have that fun game together at the end. 'Kay, Bee, ready? On your mark, make sure you don't step on the line so they don't make it go tight when they run away.
Ready, ready, ready, okay. Ready, set, we're going this way.
Get the ball, get the ball, get the ball. Bee (clapping), yeah, he, he, he, he! Your dog might not add that exuberant jump at the end.
As you recall, my dog is a little bit over the top, but whatever they want to do to make the game fun. Yes, good girl. Wanna do one more, are you ready, set, get the toy. Whoops, here, bring it here, yeah (claps)! Bring it here, bring it here, bring it here.
Yay (claps), (mumbles) yeah! So always moving away from the dog, encouraging him to bring the toy back to you.
If either one of you is not out of breath at the end of this, you're not doing it right. Now retrieving is obviously a really fun thing to do with your dog and it's something we encourage you to play a lot with them, but it's really important that when you're playing retrieve that you don't compromise your control by letting your dog be in a situation where they can take the toy and run off with it, so it's a really smart idea to keep your dog or puppy on the line or your toy, or whatever your retrieving with on a line as well to ensure that you always have control.
People are often asking us for suggestions for ideas for things for their puppies to retrieve, so if you had any great successes with certain toys at home with your dogs, especially if they were once a little unmotivated by a toy and you found something that really worked, it would be awesome if you could post some suggestions in the comments below.
I think other watchers would really appreciate some of the suggestions that you might have. Now, if you like today's video, make sure you give us a thumb's up.
Feel free to subscribe as we post brand new videos every Thursdays about all kinds of fun things to do with dogs whether it's training or just dog information in general.
My name's Kayl McCann. This is my puppy, Beeline.
Thanks for watching and happy training..
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