How to teach your dog to play fetch

Fetch is a wonderful game to play with your dog because it provides both mental and physical exercise! It teaches valuable skills and is great for practicing obedience commands like “bring” and “drop it.” While some dogs have a lot of natural retrieving instinct and pick up on the game effortlessly, some require a little more practice. Let’s say you have one of those dogs that needs a little extra help. What can you do?

The best method I have found for teaching fetch is the two toy method. For this method you will use two toys, preferably identical. Choose objects that your pup is interested in, that can be a tennis ball or any toy that your dog enjoys playing with. To begin, start with only one of the toys visible to your dog, lets say a ball. Get him interested in the ball by wiggling it in front of him and creating excitement. You can toss is back and forth in your hands to really get him wanting the ball. We want what we can’t have right?! After he shows interest in the ball, toss it just a couple feet away from him and wait silently as he approaches the ball. It’s important to only toss the ball a short distance in the beginning so he doesn’t get discouraged. Once your dog picks up the ball then you can excitedly encourage him to come back to you. Make sure you wait until he has the ball so that you don’t distract him from getting the ball in the first place! Move away from your dog to encourage him to come to you. It is important never to move toward your dog or he will quickly turn the game into keep away which can be disastrous when he decides to play this new game with your shoe! Hopefully your dog will return to you with the ball, but pretty commonly in the early stages he will lose interest and drop the ball on the way back. That’s ok! This is where the second ball comes in. Take the second ball from your pocket and start the process over again creating excitement for the ball. If your pup did bring the first ball back, this will encourage him to drop the first ball to play with the second ball. The new ball is more fun now that you are playing with it! If your dog didn’t bring back the first ball, getting him interested in the second ball will help him learn to come back to you to continue the game. Once he is interested in the second ball, throw it just a few feet away in the opposite direction of the first ball so that you can quietly retrieve the dropped first ball while he is focused on the second.

So in simpler terms, you are essentially trading one ball for another to keep the game going.

Remember to only repeat this sequence a few times in the beginning. You want to end the game while your dog is still enthusiastic and wanting to continue. As with any training, I like to end on a positive note, so if your dog does a really good job retrieving the ball, give him tons of praise and then move on to something else. As your dog gets better at fetch you can slowly increase the amount of time you play and the distance you throw the ball. Remember to have fun!! Dogs learn best when the training is upbeat and feels like a game rather than a training session. Now, go play fetch!!