So buddy is 11 weeks and I just wondered when we should expect him to start playing fetch.... well I say that, he’s great and fetching, it’s the returning part he’s not so great with (I think he’s a bit of a hoarder haha!) His recall is coming on and we’re working on it all the time, but he doesn’t really bring toys back so much. Sometimes he will come reasonably close and we’ll have a game of tug, but it doesn’t last and isn’t proper fetching. I guess I’ll just try reinforcing this but just wondered when he’ll really start to want to play fetch and if there is anything I can do to instigate it, thanks!
With our pup (now almost 5 months old) it's just really started to happen in the past month or so. Holly seems to have become very keen on retrieving balls. When we have the ball in our hands, she stands in front of us, eyes so wide and focused as if there's nothing else in the world to look at. She'll retrieve several times and then eventually she'll stop. She's still very young though.
Hi our Isla is 6 months but despite lots of encouragement will not fetch! She looks at me as if to say "you threw it so you go get it"
Mango is almost 6 months and he is not so keen on retrieving. 3 times he brings stuff back, then he just runs after, snifs and moves on.
So, you can encourage puppies to chase after things you throw - and encourage them to bring them back to you. When they get back to you, praise the pup, stroke them gently, tell them they are amazing and generally try to achieve a "puppy and you" feeling whilst the pup holds the object. It doesn't matter at this point if you don't even take it out of their mouth, just try to get them to enjoy holding something whilst being praised by you and stroked and told they are amazing. I wouldn't play tug with a fetch object like this, for fear the pup wants to tug on everything they bring back to you. But tug with tuggie toys is fine (just not necessarily after every retrieve). It's more important to get the pup feeling good about holding something and hanging out with you... So - that's puppy 'fetch' and prep work for fetch. Then, when you want to formalise things and get a reliable retrieve, I highly recommend the clicker retrieve process for achieving a reliable retrieve to hand. Which is a whole other thing. But let me know when you need info on it!
