# My Golden Retriever won't 'Retrieve'



## JaredandAlison (Feb 24, 2015)

Yesterday my wife and I adopted a 5 year old male Golden Retriever. He is beautiful and gentle and very well behaved. But an odd thing is he has no interest in playing fetch. None.

I throw a ball and he will either ignore it or go and sniff it, he doesn't even want to pick it up. Just doesn't seem to be a big chewer of anything. Not that I mind he doesn't chew everything, but doesn't like balls or any type of chew toy. I would love to play fetch with him, but not sure how to teach him when he doesn't even want to pick up the ball to start with.

Any ideas would be great.

Thank you,

Jared


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## kristasmith (Jul 16, 2013)

You've done a wonderful thing!

When we adopted Ivy, age 3 or 4, she had no concept of play, even with our other dog, and no interest in the toys we bought her. Things may be different when your new family member settles in. We taught Ivy by throwing her balls in the river, a little further each time, as she loved water...seems they all do!

We bought a small toddler pool for our back yard after seeing another member post pics of their Golden happily frolicking in one. She enjoyed chasing balls in there also. 

Give your new boy some time to adjust and get comfortable in his new environment. It's great hearing how much love you have to give!


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## Harleysmum (Aug 19, 2014)

Congratulations on your new boy. Is he a GARA baby? We too adopted a preloved golden although not a rescue. He is ball and water mad but not all goldens are. Take things slowly with him to start with. We over faced our boy with visits to coffee shops, markets, beaches, parks, food expos and god knows what in the first 48 hours!! We were just so excited!! You have so much joy ahead!


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## Thalie (Jan 20, 2008)

Get two or three exact same balls. Sit on the ground and play with them yourself, bounce it, look fascinated by them, talk to them, be silly; if you have a second person, bounce it and roll it back & forth between you. If he comes near and picks it up, let him even if he walks away with it. Start the same routine with the second ball. What you are trying to do with this is to build some drive for the ball, have him interested in picking it up. 

Once he has the picking up idea in (this can take several sessions) start him with very short throws (couple of feet) and have a second ball ready. If he goes out, picks the first one up and turns toward you, lure him with the second one. What you are building here is some distance with the "picking up" idea and the concept that he has to let go of the first one to get the second one. 

There is more to this but those are the first steps to build the "retrieve" into the Retriever. Hope this helps.


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## Max's Dad (Apr 23, 2012)

Max has very little interest in retrieving on land. However, if we go to a lake, pool or the beach, he becomes a retrieving machine. I would suggest taking him to a water place, and trying to get him to retrieve. After all, Goldens are bred to retrieve water fowl.


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## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

Bless you for adopting! Give him some time to settle in, to adapt to his new life, to get to know you and you to get to know him. This life changing event for him is stressful, confusing and he needs time to adjust. Keep things calm, close to home for a couple of weeks, just give him some time to realize and understand what has happened to him, to begin to trust that 'all is good'. Once he is settled in and feeling comfortable, then you will discover 'who he is', what he likes, doesn't like, what makes him feel happy and safe, what perhaps frightens him.


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## Carmel (Feb 9, 2015)

My Golden was a super retriever, but my Newfs were not, at least on land. I was able to teach them to retrieve though by first teaching them to catch. I used a bowl full of dry dog food, but you can use tiny treats or I suppose popcorn if not too much. The key is it has to be a treat they want to have. I just sit on the couch with them lined up and throw a treat to each one. After my Golden caught every treat no matter who I threw it to (Carmel the Golden had a blast and I never knew he was so quick and talented ) the Newfs decided to start to engage. After teaching them to catch treats it was easy to switch to a soft wooffle ball and get them to retrieve that. I think they really just wanted to get it before Carmel did but it worked!:


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## Lise123 (Jan 1, 2014)

Congratulations on your new family member!

My golden had no interest in retrieving, so I would toss a toy for a short distance. If he brought it near to me, I gave him a treat. He's only good for about 8 retrieves before he loses interest.

Lately, we have started with toys; I toss one squeaky toy, he brings it back, and I toss the second one. We started at a distance of about two feet. Squeaky toys are very exciting to my guy, and they are also forbidden under other circumstances (he destroys them), so he LOVES to retrieve this way.

Seems like different things work for different dogs, so I hope you find something that works. And if he doesn't like to retrieve at the end of the day, he's still golden and fabulous!


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## golden addict (Apr 19, 2015)

Add water. Seriously. I have had 2 goldens at different times who weren't all that interested in fetch until we got to a lake. Then they would fetch anything, all day long in the water. We did change from tennis ball to an orange bumper for one dog as the ball just wasn't that interesting to her.


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