# Teaching service dogs fetch and hold



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

It seems to me that whether you use force fetch or regular retrieve take/hold/give methods for utility (dogs must pick up articles and gloves), it does apply to service dog training. If you tell your dog to take something, it shouldn't matter what it is - they have to pick it up and bring it to you, and they should not release it until you give the give or drop command. 

I thought that should definitely apply to picking up dead or fighting animals as some dogs may be fussy about picking up and fetching an animal that rotting or biting their faces.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

Yes but I was curious how they teach forced fetch and if the method was any different than with field training. Just looking for options in training. Yes whether they are picking up articles or remote controls they do need to learn how to fetch and hold. Dead or dying animals some dogs do well with some not so much.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

There's many different methods used, but whichever one a trainer uses, a service dog is going to be exposed to retrieving many many different kinds of objects in its training. Whereas a dog trained strictly for field might be limited to birds, bumpers, and dowels because nothing else is needed.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

@Jodie - but if you train take/hold/give - the commands are the same regardless of what the object you want the dog to take/hold/give - right? 

Good example I can think of is shoes, sticks, toys..... these are things that I can tell Jacks to "take it" and he will go and pick those up and bring them back to me and hold until I take from him. I can imagine that easily being transitioned to training a dog to fetch a remote or whatever item you need around the house, providing it isn't to heavy and isn't nailed down. You just train the name of the object and repeat until the dog knows when you point at X and call it by name you want him to bring it to you? With Jacks, this is useful because he takes shoes and toys outside and would leave them out there if I didn't send him back out there to clean up after himself. 

FWIW - I'm working on the same with Bertie, but he hasn't gone further than knowing that stick means stick. And if treats are involved he throws them at me instead of giving. He's slow.


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## ServiceDogs (Apr 2, 2013)

It's quite similar to teaching a dog to retriever birds, you just use all different kinds of objects. Where as in field you teach the dogs to fetch bumpers and birds, we teach ours to fetch remotes, clothing items, dropped objects etc. Some of my personal dogs know many items by name (their collar, different toys, food bowl, sticks, hammer, etc.) plus most anything I point to or that has my scent on it.


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## solinvictus (Oct 23, 2008)

Service dogs wrote: "It's quite similar to teaching a dog to retriever birds,"

Do you use an ear pinch or a toe pinch when teaching this behavior?


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Methods can vary widely, there is no "standard" way to train a service dog, so some groups/trainers employ a forced retrieve into their training, others do not. But I don't think there is anything done with service dogs that would be unusual to see in people training dogs for field or obedience, nor the other way around. It just depends on the program/trainer being used.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

My question was really about techniques used to teach service dogs how to fetch and hold. I am aware of forced fetch for bird dog training. There is a wide variety of ways forced fetch with bird dogs is taught. I wanted to know how the service dogs are taught forced fetch. Do they use the ear pinch, ear pressure, toe tap, e-collar, or whatever? Or do they use a treat method. I've seen the treat method used. It takes a long time to do the treat method. I'm partial to an ear pressure method that Connie Cleveland uses. Does anyone know of a video of someone teaching a service dog fetch and hold? It would be nice to see how they do it. Thank you


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

I would say that most people, even those who do teach a forced retrieve of some kind (ear pinch or whatever) first teach a dog to take and hold an object before they put the "force" behind it. 

For Flip, I first taught him how to take and hold an object using some food. Then I went through all the typical steps of a field force fetch program. That was followed up by having him pick up all kinds of different items.

I don't need Flip to retrieve for my disability, but it's a handy skill to have.


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## ServiceDogs (Apr 2, 2013)

solinvictus said:


> Service dogs wrote: "It's quite similar to teaching a dog to retriever birds,"
> 
> Do you use an ear pinch or a toe pinch when teaching this behavior?


I'm more on the breeding, researching pedigree end, but I don't use them on my personal dogs (also used for breeding sometimes for the service dogs, so trained to a very high level to prove that they could be service dogs). It does depend on the trainer and the dog. No one method will work for every dog and trainer, especially when training to such a high level.


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