# Not retrieving



## Soapsy (Aug 14, 2010)

Hi,

I'm new here, owner of a 17 week old Vizsla bitch called Rika. Mostly, I think she is doing pretty well. She was house trained by about 12.5 weeks, happily sleeps in her crate all night etc. She has mastered most basic obedience stuff, and the recall is doing well as long as distractions are not too much.

But, she will not retrieve. If I throw something a short distance, sometimes she might go and pick it up and run off in the other direction, but mostly she just looks at it in that 'you threw it, you get it' kind of way. The rare occasions when she's brought something back to me, I've tried to be really over enthusiastic with the praise, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. It's really surprised me as I thought Vizslas were meant to be keen retrievers. I'm not planning to train her for working, just as a pet, but being willing to retrieve would certainly help with energy levels when she gets bigger!

Any ideas on how to encourage willingness to retrieve?


----------



## sarahaf (Aug 17, 2009)

Rosie really seemed stumped by certain dog-human games when she was a puppy. We wondered if she'd ever get it. Somehow as she matured she realized the potential toys have for things like fetching, tug of war, etc. So don't give up, it may be puppy ADD (just kind of on overload with all the new things to look at in the world, too distracted to grasp retrieving). If you want to work on it, though, you could try adding treats to the praise when she does get it.


----------



## BamBam (Feb 14, 2010)

have u tried going mad with the pup and toy before you throw it. For example I would get a toy and start playing tug with it, and wave it around etc and get the puppies attention really focused on it so it really really wants it, (squeaky toys are great for this) and then throw it.When it has got the toy try and encourage pup to come back by calling it with a treat.


----------



## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

One trick that you can try is to get a Nerf football, or equivalent, and apply a few drops of bird scent, or tie game bird wing feathers to it. Present her with the ball and let her worry it a little bit. Then take her outside and roll the ball across the yard. 
The bird scent and the ball rolling end over end and in an animated manner may stimulate her a little more.


----------



## janz99 (Aug 23, 2010)

BamBam said:


> have u tried going mad with the pup and toy before you throw it. For example I would get a toy and start playing tug with it, and wave it around etc and get the puppies attention really focused on it so it really really wants it, (squeaky toys are great for this) and then throw it.When it has got the toy try and encourage pup to come back by calling it with a treat.


This is how we get our 9 week old pup to get her toys. I normaly engage in some serious play with the toy and get her really excited with it. Then i toss it, but ive found that there is a limit. If i throw it to far she just wont go and get it, but if i toss it about 5-6 feet, she will leap and jump to it, and then bring it right back to me. 

Ill take it out of her mouth, and repeat, and praise her heavily everytime she comes back with it. Some days she just isn't interested in playing, but most days she will. Good luck and keep trying.


----------



## Soapsy (Aug 14, 2010)

Thanks all. She'll happily play tug-of-war games with raggers (clothes, tea towels, anything she's not meant to have...) 

The key to this dog appears to be cheese! She will do anything for cheese, so I have finally managed to get her to achieve a few short retrieves in exchange for cheese. OK, so she throws the ball at my feet or a couple or feet away in her desperation for her 2mm cube, but its a move in the right direction!

Now to resolve her fear and loathing of water and swimming....

Maybe if I start hurling blocks of cheddar into the water she'll get the idea :-\


----------



## lovemyava (Mar 19, 2010)

Soapsy-
That is so funny that your dog loves cheese, so does our Ava..she goes crazy for it and will normally only listen super well if there is cheese involved. We get her upstairs from downstairs by hollering "Ava want some cheese" and she comes flying...too funny!


----------

