Playing Fetch - His way. Grrr

[Oskar der Drachen]

After reading these responses, thanks everyone, here is my plan. Do feel free to pick holes in it to suggest an improvement.

1. Fetch on a long lead. Go get the ball and have him bring it back to me and sit in front of me dropping the ball at my feet. Lots of treats and loves in this stage. Throw again when I get the single ball.

2. One ball and backyard using sit and drop plus Rua's "No Play" method for not bringing it back. Many reps, but in three to four chase repeats. Reward on the combo behaviour of brining it back AND sitting.

I liker the mat idea of a target to hit before another chase, but that is another thing I would have to take with me on walks. I'm trying to be as minimalist as possible, but even that is a bit of gear.

[zyppi]

use two balls!

when he brings one back and drops it, then throw the other.

[MadLab]

The game is just getting boring for the dog

After a few weeks of fetch they need to be challenged or they'll loose interest.

There are loads of ways to make it more exciting so the dog can't predict your next move so easily.

You can introduce many obedience exercises into your games which will make it more challenging for the dog

Here are a few ideas. You can use a down or stand in place of sit.

You can start heeling the dog before you throw it for him.

Then have him sit and throw the ball, then send him to get it

Have him sit, you walk away and call him to you while throwing the ball behind you. This improves speed on the recall.

Leave the ball on the ground and heel the dog away and then send him back for it. This is a beginning of a send away.

Get a ball with a string and play tug with it.Then throw it and the dog will want to bring it back to you to resume the game of tug.

You can call the dog to you holding the ball and string in the air so the dog jumps to catch it

Always having another ball in reserve helps if he doesn't bring the one in his mouth back.

Hopefully this will become fun for you and the dog.

[MadLab]

Any one else with some ideas on this? Or does someone see some errors with my techniques? I'd like to see more ball play videos clips if there are any out there

[Lilie]

When my pup stopped bringing the ball back to me, I stopped playing. For me to figure out what was going on in his head, I brought the game inside to a more controlled enviroment. To make it more interesting I have two toys that we play fetch with. One is a squeaky kong ball and one is a Kong that has cloth tails on it.

In the home I sat in a chair (acutally at my computer) and I'd lightly toss the ball. He'd get it and bring it back. Either every other or every third throw I'd use the Kong with tails, when he brought it back we'd play tug. If he fails to bring back either toy I'd totally ignore him. I'd start playing on the computer. When he brought the toy, I'd start the game again. To spice it up a bit I'd leave my arm hanging and he'd actually try to put the toy in my hand to get my attention.

I'd only play for short periods to leave him wanting more. Then when we took it outside, I wouldn't throw the balls very far. If he didn't bring the ball back I'd sit on the ground and play with my phone. I wanted to make sure he knew I wasn't paying him any attention. And it was less frustrating for me.

Now he brings it back every single time. He'll drop it at my feet. If I step back, he'll pick it up and drop it again at my feet. What we are working on now is if I'm present and someone else throws the ball, he'll bring it to me. We are using the same technique to teach him to return the ball to the person who threw it.