Hi all, Anyone want to share there ideas or experiences on teaching their pup to fetch? And at what age? Thanks ☺
In the early days we just played with soft toys with Bramble, no pressure at all, just made it all a really fun game! Everytime she brought me a toy she got lots of praise though. At around 5 months old we started very short sessions, around 2 or 3 mins, of clicker training a retrieve, back chaining the end of the pattern first..meaning working on the end of retreive, so holding the article first, in this case a sausage shaped soft toy and working on from that. More structured retrieve training we started at around 10- 12 months old. One advantage of the backchaining the retrieve I have seen in Bramble, is that she holds and delivers the dummy really well. It's worth bearing in mind that although labradors are retrievers, some take to it more quickly than others, some need to have the desire to retrieve nurtured very carefully, and some are just so driven that obsession and steadiness can be a real challenge further down the road. So always bear in mind the dog you have in front of you. Consider why you want your dog to retrieve, is just a game to keep your dog entertained in the park, or would you like to try gundog training? Clicker training a retrieve http://totallygundogs.com/clicker-trained-retrieve/
