So Alfie is approaching 5 months now and we've been very lucky he's a great calm pup (with manic moments) and in the house and garden (or other peoples gardens) he loves to play fetch but on walks he just isn't interested everything else is to exciting, any tips on how to get him retrieving on walks? I've tried rewarding him whenever he did show any interest in retrieving but then he becomes even less interested in chasing anything i throw. At min best i can get is a half hearted chase and very occasional pick up and usually drops with in a couple of seconds. Thanks guys and girls
Jax isn't that interested in chasing balls etc. on his morning walk, he tends to just run around and do his own thing over the half hour walk - it is quite early though. When we go out later in the day though, the first part of it tends just to be chasing balls. But you can see when he gets tired/bored and we then leave him to his own devices. I purchased a couple of dummies to play with him in the garden. Day 1 he got them as toys and he loves them, but then I removed them and just get them out when its garden retrieve time. He has clicked on to the fact that when i grab them, its time to chase them.
This is a good video from Susan Garrett on the puppy retrieve. You might want to fast forward to around 2 minutes 30 seconds to get to the 'meat' of the content / demonstration. Tug is a great game to play with your puppy as it engages them in being next to you - makes them see value in staying close.
There's a great article on Clicker Fetch by Elsa Blomster on the main site. I also recommend her book Retrieving For All Occasions
