Your Dog’s Favorite Obedience Command

Now it’s time for one of the easiest tricks to teach your dog. For the most part, fetch is a game, but adding a command like “fetch” or “retrieve” is a good way to continue building the alpha relationship and give your dog a sense of doing something useful and interactive.

At first, when you throw a ball or a bone, most breeds of dog will go get it, but then plunk down to play on his own. It does take some work to teach the “fetch” command, but your dog will enjoy it immensely.

 

1. The dog should become alert and go directly to the thrown object without hesitation.
2. He should go to it, pick it up and return to you without any distractions.
3. He should drop the object at your feet rather than keeping it for himself.

So, with that in mind, I’ll go into how you can teach the “fetch” or “retrieve” behavior in a handful of fun and easy steps.

Training Steps: “Fetch” or “Retrieve”

Since there are a few different behaviors that all go into the complete “retrieve” pattern, I take them one at a time. The first thing to teach is the habit of giving you an object your puppy wants.

“Fetch” or “Retrieve” Step 1: Releasing Objects to You

1. During play time, get some treats and your dog’s favorite (throwable) toy.
2. Get rid of distractions to set the stage for training.
3. Toss the toy, but not so far that you can’t reach it.
4. Once your dog has the toy, try to take it out of your dog’s mouth. Say “good dog” or whatever your reward phrase has been up til now, even if your dog hesitates.
5. If your dog won’t let go, produce a treat and hold it up as a bribe.
6. Once your dog releases the toy, heap lots of praise and give a treat.

Repeat this many times over a 5 minute session, then end the training session. Do at least 2 sessions per day to create the behavior of giving you an object your dog wants.

“Fetch” or “Retrieve” Step 2: The “Give” Command

Here, you’re just going to repeat the above steps , adding a verbal command at the instant you reach for the object. I like the word “give” because it just makes sense to me. However, because you’ll eventually phase-out the command and expect this behavior without a command, some people prefer to say “thanks.” In any case, the verbal command should happen as you are touching the toy and it’s in the dog’s mouth. You should continue using the verbal command even once your puppy willingly drops the toy in front of you. Of course, also give praise and a treat the second he does what’s expected.

Once your dog is fetching or retrieving from a short distance pretty reliably, throw the toy farther, until you can no longer reach it and he has to go actually get it. Otherwise, continue the exact same steps. Keep in mind these rules for you, the trainer:

• What’s important is that the puppy gets no treats, and no further play time, until he gives up the object.
• If your puppy starts out obeying you, but throwing the toy further makes him not obey, ask yourself if the training sessions are going on too long, or if you’re depriving him of any “time alone” with his toy.
• Make sure you continue to reward the right behavior, and that the best punishment for disobedience is just to end play time and stop interacting.
• You should switch objects being fetched, and switch locations for the game, after your dog is becoming reliable and confident about the “fetch” or “retrieve” behavior.
• Any time you use a new object or location, start with the shorter distance tosses.

“Fetch” or “Retrieve” Step 3: The Verbal Command

Once your dog has learned that specific objects are to be returned to you, and is doing that faithfully, it’s time to introduce the verbal command.

1. While you toss the object, say “fetch!” or whatever word you like. Continue all the steps above but add the word “fetch” as you are tossing the toy.
2. Once you feel you’ve given lots of repetition with the “fetch” word attached, now say fetch before you toss the toy. Your dog should get ready to run and watch you intently.
3. Finally, phase out the treats, to show your dog this is behavior you expect.

That’s it! You’ve taught your dog to fetch or retrieve an object on command. The entire process should only take a few days at most.

One Last Note about Training a Dog to Fetch or Retrieve

Treats aren’t always the thing to work with – you don’t want to over-feed your dog, but they are a very effective lure to training. Another good method is clicker training, which involves a small object that you “click” as a reward. I talk about clicker training in detail in another article, and you can look at affordable clicker training packages if you want to add that to your obedience training system.