Fetch (take it & drop)

Teaching fetch is easy. The first thing your dog needs to know for a successful game of fetch is “drop”. Fetch is a super fun game to play with your dog that is also a great way to tire him out. As your dog runs back and forth he’ll burn off energy and will be a better behaved pup. A tired dog tends not to get into too much trouble.

The first part of this exercise is “take it”, this is a wonderful trick that will prevent your dog from exhibiting poor manners and yanking toys, food and various objects out of your hand. 

Begin with a large toy that you can hold onto securely while your dog holds onto the other end. A rope toy, frisbee or toys that squeak are fine, don’t use a tennis ball because it is too hard to hold onto it once it is inside your dog’s mouth mouth.

Say, “take it” and offer it to your dog while keeping a good hold on it. The second your dog’s mouth goes around it mark it with a click (if she is clicker trained) or a “yes”. She should know by now that the marker means a treat will follow. She will instantly drop the toy so you can feed her the treat. Some dogs need to see the treat or smell the treat after you click to be sure they will get something yummy for relinquishing the object. When she does open her mouth, feed her the treat and praise. Repeat this several times in a row until you are pretty sure that every time you offer the toy she will gladly take it.

Now say, “take it” and when she does tell her good girl and start playing with the toy by shaking it gently or moving it up and down so she will tug on it. After a few seconds hold your hands still and say, “drop”. Some dogs will automatically drop when they realize the toy is now static and therefore no fun, while others might need a little treat incentive to want to drop it. When she opens her mouth to release the toy click, feed her the treat and then offer the toy again. She will soon be relinquishing the toy on the “drop” cue.

If you find that she is not dropping the toy consistently, try with tastier treats or a pretty boring toy.

At this point you can turn it into a game where sometimes after she drops the toy you click and treat and sometimes she just gets the toy back and you play some more. Like this, you can begin to play with your dog in a nice orderly fashion where you are not concerned about the dog jumping up or grabbing.  

Now you are ready to play fetch. When she drops the toy, instead of offering it again immediately, play with it yourself and toss it saying “fetch”. As she runs to it tell her how proud you are and what a great dog she is. Let her run around with the toy for a bit and then cue her to drop it. If you find that she is having too much fun to listen, you can start playing with a second toy. When she sees how much fun you are having she’ll want that toy instead of the one in her mouth. Once she is paying attention to the new toy, she will drop the other one, giving you a chance to pick that one up and continue the game. It is important that you make the toy fun, you can squeak it, throw it up in the air, dance around with it, or whatever you can come up with.

Make sure that you end the game before your dog gets too tired and doesn’t want to bring the toy back. You can ask for it one last time and give her a cookie for the last drop or you can reward her with a lot of praise and petting while you put the toy away. 

Once your dog is happy to fetch for you, you can use different toys, balls, sticks, etc. And best of all, if you go a bit further with training you can ask her to fetch the paper, shoes, keys and all sorts of other useful fetching.