# How to get Golden Retriever to fetch ball?



## HenryHH (Jan 14, 2009)

I have a Golden Retriever puppy who will turn 11 months old on January 29th. I have owned 2 Golden Retrievers previously, both of whom fetched without any training or coercion beyond the throwing of a tennis ball. In fact, fetching was the primary/favorite activity of the Golden Retriever I had most recently. 

However, this dog does NOT fetch at all. He just doesn't do it. If I pick up a tennis ball, shoe, stick, etc. and throw it, he'll chase it for approximately 50%-80% of the distance it is from his current position, but after he gets that far, his path usually becomes wayward as he gets distracted, etc. It's as if you were to draw a straight line down a page of paper about halfway and then suddenly disrupt the line by making it curve off to the left/right. 

Do some dogs (even retrievers) just not fetch? Why doesn't this dog want to fetch while the vast majority of retrievers seem to express the urgency to do it as a default trait? Is there any way I can "train" him to fetch without having to pay a professional trainer?


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## Marsh Muppet (Nov 29, 2008)

Show breeders who don't breed for working ability and BYBs breeding for the pet trade produce a lot of dogs that don't have a strong (or any) drive to retrieve. Lack of retrieving drive can result even from solid field pedigrees.

You can develop some of what's in there by doing short retrieves in the hallway. Get the dog all fired up by teasing him with a ball or a toy (dip in gravy if you have to) and throw it short. If you have to start off with 2 foot long retrieves, so be it. Praise to high heaven if he merely follows the movement with his eyes, and limit yourself to 2 or 3 tries. Get as goofy as necessary. Even after he starts showing real interest, don't over do it. If the dog lacks interest, it's easy to get him to be bored with the activity. You want to always leave him wanting more.

If you use a crate, try retrieves in the hallway only after he's been in confinement for a couple of hours. Anything else you can do to make retrieving a high value activity is good to try. This sounds like the kind of thing that clicker training was made for.

He will probably not be as obsessive about playing fetch as your other dogs were. but you can certainly develop enough interest to get a brief game going.


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## Westhighlander (Sep 28, 2007)

Try sticking a ball in his mouth, then click and treat. Keep doing this and then next step is to the put the ball on the floor and see if he picks it up and then click and treat for that. Progress to rolling the ball and so on.


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## Marsh Muppet (Nov 29, 2008)

Westhighlander said:


> Try sticking a ball in his mouth, then click and treat.


Tread carefully here. You don't want to make it a point of contention since the dog has low retrieving drive to begin with. My dog is one of those that always has an object in his mouth. If I didn't get him to be a working retriever, I'd probably consider it borderline OCD behavior. But when I was training "conditioned hold", I got a ton of resistance any time I tried to stick the paint roller in his mouth. He'd clam right up and turn his head this way and that to avoid having something placed in his maw. He even wouldn't allow me to easily place a pig ear in his mouth. He'd take it from my hand, but he wouldn't let me place it in his mouth. And yes, there is an important difference.

If the dog will take the ball, then fine. I wouldn't try to force any object into his mouth until you've established the pattern of behaviors and created positive associations with them.


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## HenryHH (Jan 14, 2009)

Wow -- it sounds like it's going to be a lot harder than I had originally thought to transform this dog into a "fetching dog!" Since my dog hasn't been fetching, the only way I've been able to exercise him is by running him several miles each day, but since I also run (to exercise myself) 5-6 miles every day, all the running is beginning to accumulate into an overuse injury in my hips. This is the first time I've ever had to "run" a dog to this extent; my other dogs always appreciated fetching as their primary activity. 

I've heard of clicker training, though I'm largely unfamiliar with its methods and techniques. So I should begin with preliminary training by clicking the device and subsequently feeding him a treat, and once he becomes familiar with and expectant of the pattern of click-treat, I should just use this method to entice the dog into first picking up the ball with his mouth and then chasing after it? 

It just seems like it will be difficult to expand this into a "game"; won't the dog's motivation to participate just be fueled by the anticipation that he will receive a treat? 

Marsh Muppet -- your anecdote of your dog always having a ball in his mouth reminds me of the last dog I owned! He would even prance around with two -- sometimes three -- balls in his mouth during many games of fetch.


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## Westhighlander (Sep 28, 2007)

Marsh Muppet said:


> Tread carefully here. You don't want to make it a point of contention since the dog has low retrieving drive to begin with. My dog is one of those that always has an object in his mouth. If I didn't get him to be a working retriever, I'd probably consider it borderline OCD behavior. But when I was training "conditioned hold", I got a ton of resistance any time I tried to stick the paint roller in his mouth. He'd clam right up and turn his head this way and that to avoid having something placed in his maw. He even wouldn't allow me to easily place a pig ear in his mouth. He'd take it from my hand, but he wouldn't let me place it in his mouth. And yes, there is an important difference.
> 
> If the dog will take the ball, then fine. I wouldn't try to force any object into his mouth until you've established the pattern of behaviors and created positive associations with them.



The word "try" does not mean force.


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## JustTess (Mar 19, 2008)

Henry, I thought the very same thing when I adopted our two dogs. Both of them didn't like toys or a simple thing like a ball.



> You can develop some of what's in there by doing short retrieves in the hallway. Get the dog all fired up by teasing him with a ball or a toy (dip in gravy if you have to) and throw it short. If you have to start off with 2 foot long retrieves, so be it. Praise to high heaven if he merely follows the movement with his eyes, and limit yourself to 2 or 3 tries. Get as goofy as necessary. Even after he starts showing real interest, don't over do it. If the dog lacks interest, it's easy to get him to be bored with the activity. You want to always leave him wanting more.


Mash.... we tried these very things with some interest after some trying times. It took a while for us, but both finally like to get the ball.

What eventually got both of them to chase balls was stuffed animals. They started to enjoy playing with them and then I started throwing them with a "go get it" command and reward. Eventually, I switched to a ball and then told one of them to "go get it"

Try getting them to focus on a treat (or something that holds their attention) at give it a swift fling and say "go get it"


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## Marsh Muppet (Nov 29, 2008)

Westhighlander said:


> The word "try" does not mean force.


Understood, but I didn't want the OP to misunderstand. In my dog's case, receiving the hold/retrieve item is an obedience issue. A working retriever doesn't get a vote regarding what he picks up, how long he holds it, and how he handles it. A purpose-bred retriever's drive is hard-wired and it takes some doing to extinguish it. A dog who lacks interest has got to be approached somewhat more delicately.

Henry, your dog is too young right now, but you might want to consider bikejoring with him once he's fully grown @ about 2 years old.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuv5TIysZ-s&NR=1


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## HenryHH (Jan 14, 2009)

LOL -- I can just see my dog barreling off the road and into the woods at the sight of a squirrel as the bike is yanked out from under me and I crash to the ground. 

Heck, he's even difficult to walk; besides the aforementioned "chase" instinct that is tapped by the sight of a squirrel or deer in the woods, he also likes to just plop down in the grass beside the road (easement) and sit...and sit...and refuse to get back up and resume walking. 

In fact, the longest period of time he has ever plopped down and become comfortably immobilize was around 45 minutes. On that day, it took nearly two hours to walk less than a mile! It's pretty frustrating, especially since he isn't sitting down because he's tired or hot (what golden retriever is fatigued after walking 1/6 of a mile)? 

Oh, well...I guess I'll just check PetCo and/or PetSmart tomorrow for a clicker and go from there...


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