Teaching my Alley to fetch...

    • Silver

    Teaching my Alley to fetch...

    Well this is only my second thread in this forum. My only thread before this was a few months ago when I had to put my 11 year old shepard Odie to sleep. http://forum.dog.com/forums/t/70366.aspx Its been tough, but in his memory, I am doing all I can to spoil my little girl Alley.  She is a 9 month old lab mix.  She loves to play, but the problem is, she won't fetch.  We will take her to the park, throw the ball, rope, stick, etc.  She will run it down, and then take it off somewhere to play with it on her own.  We have tried everything.  Our first idea was to hold treats and only give them to her when she brings the ball back.  This didn't really work.  She never seems to get the point.  Then I looked something up on the internet that said to have two balls.  Throw one, if she doesnt bring it back, play with the other one by yourself until she brings the other one back.  I have worked with this for a few weeks and it doesnt seem to be getting through either.  Any ideas?  This little girl has so much energy and she loves to play.  Fetch would be perfect for her!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Try attaching a long lead to her so when she gets the ball, call her then start to "reel" her in then give the treat.  She's figured out that it's more fun to take the ball and run away instead of bringing it back to you...
    That's how I taught Maze anyways.. Now she loves the game!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Putting her on a long line is a great idea...reel her in give her a treat and throw the ball again.

    I did the 2 ball game with Heidi (GSD) when she was younger.  She too showed little interest in fetching at first.  She would prefer to go run after the ball and expect me to come chase her for it.  Wrong...little girl.  Smile  So, we would get one toss per game per day.  Not fun. 

    We have just recently graduated from the 2 ball game to a 1 ball game.  We had to work on "bring it", "drop it", and "wait".  But, we can finally enjoy a good game of "Chuck It."