# How do you teach them to play fetch?



## pbthompson3168 (May 3, 2006)

Hello,:wavey: 
We are eagerly awaiting our puppy this weekend. He is 5.5 months old and we want to teach him to play fetch with the kids. Any suggestions?
What about hide and seek? 
What about swimming? We live near a big lake and would like to take him there as well. How do you introduce him to water? 
I know this will take time and we will be starting manners class next week but I want to play with him as well as teach him the basic commands.
Any advice will be great.


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

retrieving is a very important part in what I do with my dogs.. I always take a puppy and start with throwing a rolled up sock down a hallway... they will almost always run after it and grab it... the deal with the hallway is that they have no place to go except back past you.. when they do, dont grab the sock.. instead, catch the pup up in your lap..then take the sock and throw it again.. 3 repeats..twice a day.. you dont wanna burn a pup out on it...you want to quit with them wanting more.. you want to turn on that "desire to retrieve" switch.. soon they will love it and get the idea that if they bring it back to you they get to do it again... 

the best way is to get your shorts on and wade out there yourself..dont make a big deal out of it.. some of them bail right in and some take a while.. make sure the water is not cold.. but get in the water and act like you are having fun.. maybe just wading depth at first.. first you want them to like the water..then you can worry about swimming.. all dogs can swim.. the idea is to get them to have a good water attitude... no forcing them in..

oh..by the way he is getting very close to teething age.. so he may not want to have stuff in his mouth too much while that is going on... but usually they are ok with soft stuff...like a sock.. also a very good retrieving item is a new little fuzzy paint roller.. i recommend using the retrieving item for only that game.. not leaving it for them as a toy to chew on... soon he will be going after what ever you throw..


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

and welcome to the forum..good bunch of folks here....


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## pbthompson3168 (May 3, 2006)

*Teaching them to retrieve*

Thank you so much for the tips. I have honestly never had a dog that I was responsible for as far as training. I am terrifed of "messing him up". I want a well behaved dog and am willing to work at that I am just not sure how to go about it. 
I have set up the training classes, ordered GR for dummies, but I don't want to be to over the top that he doesn't have fun with us. Does that make sense? I think I am having new parent jitters.


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

first give him a week or so to just settle in....and become part of the family..


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

With Samson, we didn't have to teach him much. Once he liked a toy (or stick/ball/etc), he'd chase after most anything. "Drop it" has been harder, but in the past couple days, he's gotten great at that.

For Samson, he's just always got something in his mouth. He has a pile of sticks and twigs that he has collected around our neighborhood while walking. I swear he just always wants a stick in his mouth.

We play two versions of hide and seek. When we're playing ball in the house, sometimes after I throw it, I'll hide.....and wait for him to find me. Not much of a challenge for him and his nose. It's a little more challenging for him when we hide one of his balls, but he'll always find it...

As far as water.....I haven't got to take him swimming, so I'm not sure how he'll take to it....


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## PeggyK (Apr 16, 2005)

My Boomer LOVED to fetch-but then he only wanted to play with the item thrown!!!! Coach loves to retrieve and learned DROP IT in about 5 minutes-all dogs are different I guess.


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## goldenstaples (Apr 3, 2006)

Phoebe was fetching ay 8 wks. old, I would throw the ball, the bend down with my hand open and say bring it to me, then when she brought the ball(I had purchased little puppy tennis balls) I would give her a little treat. I was so glad I had taught her this with the "bring it to me" because through these puppy months when we are outside or she gets something she should not have I just bend down playfully and say Phoebe bring it to me and she runs it to me instead of me going after her! Believe me there has been some yucchy things! Fetching does not take long for these dogs to catch on . My other Golden learned real young too!


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## heidi_pooh (Feb 9, 2006)

Fetch is in their blood. Somehow they just know how to retrieve. When I first got Otto I had him out front for a pee break. A piece of newspaper had blown up onto the lawn and he went, grabbed it and brought it back to me.


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

heidi_pooh said:


> Fetch is in their blood. Somehow they just know how to retrieve.


Yeah.....Samson would chase anything we threw, even right after we got him at 11 weeks, and he'd always bring it back. The actual drop part has only recently been sinking in. He's finally figuring out that if he drops it, we'll throw it again....


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## pbthompson3168 (May 3, 2006)

*Forget about the training he already knows it!!*

Wow, it has been a busy couple of days. We picked up Jackson (Jack for short) on Sunday. He will be 6 months old tomorrow and boy is he active!! We tried throwing a couple of sticks while we were at the breeders just to see what he would do, he went right after it and brought it back. He wouldn't let it go though. If we threw something else he would drop the original stick. How old is Sampson? I read that you said he was just picking up on the drop thing. 
Today we decided to go for a walk down by the river. He jumped right in almost pulling my son in with him. He swam and swam. I made him take breaks but he didn't really seem to want to. We have to work on the pulling on the leash thing as well. He tends to jump up and bite at the leash. Doesn't seem to be a big fan of it. At the breeders he was free to walk around with the other 8 Goldens in residence. Which leads me to believe he feels restrained by the leash.
What do you guys do with your dogs when you are at work? Do you let them roam the house or do you put them in the crate? Jackson was free to walk around the house as well and now he is putting on the brakes when he has to go into his crate at night. It seems like he is mad because he had all this freedom and now we are taking it away from him. He is completey housebroken. Not one accident in over 2 weeks since the breeder got him back from the lady that was to busy to keep him.
The bad news is that the lady didn't keep him up to date on his shots and my vet can't give him his rabies shot until 6/1 also his neuter date so we had to postpone manners class for a couple of weeks. 
I have a jpg picture of him. How do I post it to the site?


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

What a nice looking dog....reminds me of Samson, too.

Samson is now almost 8 months...but like you said, the way we've worked on the drop command is by using two sticks (or balls). He just kinda started dropping on his own. Just make sure you praise him a lot when he does drop it...

We will hopefully get our first shot at swimming this weekend.....I'm looking forward to it...


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