[nagdu] Fetching

[Julie J]

There are a million different ways of teaching a dog to retrieve.  Which one 
you pick will depend on what training philosophy you follow and what exactly 
you want from your dog.  I'd suggest Googgling a bit to get a basic 
understanding of your options.  There are thousands of free web pages, 
videos and books available on the topic.

Personally I have only taught a play retrieve to Monty.  He gets his toy, 
brings it back and gives it to me on cue.  I taught this through play and 
refusal to play when he decided to not bring the toy back or relinquish the 
toy.  He is highly motivated by playing the fetch game, so the expectation 
of another toss is enough to motivate him to follow my rules.

I also use a very informal "find it" which utilizes his natural curiosity to 
find objects that I've dropped.  In all honesty this isn't really a trained 
behavior at all.  If I drop something I can call him to where I am.  If he 
doesn't immediately go to investigate the out of place item, I can draw his 
attention to the general area and he will go to the object I've dropped.  I 
can then pick up the object and praise him for finding it.  This method 
works well enough for my purposes that I haven't taught anything more 
formal.

A working retrieve is actually a chain of many behaviors, going away toward 
the object, identifying the correct item, picking up the item, holding the 
item, returning to the handler, and finally giving the item to the handler. 
>From what I've read most trainers suggest back chaining this sequence, which 
means to teach the last behavior first, working your way backwards through 
the chain of behaviors.

HTH
Julie