# Training a V to fetch



## 471 (Feb 22, 2010)

Does anyone have a V that they actually trained to LIKE to fetch (especially with balls)? My V, whom we adopted at age 3 (now 4), only fetches when she feels like it, and we discovered she doesn't like to swim - I have to carry her in the pool and let her swim back to the steps. Our last dog, a lab mix, lived with a ball in her mouth and although she didn't live in the pool all summer, she did like to go in when she was hot or when I threw a ball into the water. Is there any hope? I miss playing ball with my dog! If I throw her a ball, it just bounces off her nose :.


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## Vespasia (Apr 19, 2010)

Hally loves to play fetch! With sticks, balls, pretty much anything. Playing Soccer is her favourite game (she's got good skills!) but she will always take an opportunity for a game of fetch. 

We didn't do anything overlly unsual to get her interested in this. The biggest thing was we would get REALLY excited everytime she would go near the ball and even more crazy when she brought the ball back (she'd get some treats too). 

That said, my previous dog was a golden retreiver who hated to retrieve, so what do I know?


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## NZ_V (Jun 4, 2009)

Rossi loves to fetch as well! - he has great toy drive too. He isn't a great fan of swimming yet...a bit of a chicken! and when he does go in he swims wildly - hopefully will resolve that in summer this year!!


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

Bearpaw

Some V's just love to fetch from day one. Others, not so much. Unfortunately the time to really kick that desire into high gear is when they are puppies. Even them, it's no guarantee.

Your options are to;

1.) Find an object she likes to go after. maybe the Tennis ball isn't doing it for her. 
"Chuckit, a toy company, has a frisbee looking toy that looks like a squirrel. My dog, that I got as an adult, loves that thing and will chase it all day long. They also make a nice plush ball that can be scented with quail, and a cool little frisbee. These toys are quitr a bit more animated than a ball.

2.) Have her "Forced Trained" to retrieve. If you don't actually intend to hunt her, I wouldn't do this. It's not worth it to put a dog through this just to chase a ball.

I have noticed a few things through the years with regards to V's and fetching.

Some V's naturally "look up" and others tend to look in a more horizontal plane. The ones that look up, I believe, have a greater natural tendency to track and mark an object thrown in an arc, and make a better "natural retriever". The ones that don't look up tend to lose the object once it's in the air and don't know what to do, or they just want to chase the object.

I have one right now, Tika, That loves to play fetch, but she is truly awful at tracking/marking a thrown object. It's not all her fault though, she got started late, and didn't actually begin any training of any type until almost 2 years old.
I've been progressively working with her by starting out throwing the object along the ground, and then progressively higher. When I know I'm throwing above where she wants to look, I throw the object a shorter distance so that it make a "plop" to draw her attention. Hopefully she learns to look up more. I use frisbee's and heavier balls that make more noise to help her out.

Gunnr chases anything thrown, and has excellent, natural tracking/marking instincts.

Both dogs didn't get introduced to water until last fall. Gunnr was about 15 months old and Tika 2 1/2years old. I got them both as adults, but not a rescue situation, so I pretty much knew what they had and had not been introduced to. 
This spring I actually put on fishing waders, put them on a leash and took them to an area that I could "walk" them in the water swimming. If you do this, make sure that as you "walk" them that they can touch the bottom at times. The other trick is to have someone with you on shore, and each time you let them swim to shore they get lots of attention,and maybe a towel rub. 
Don't overwhelm them. keep each individual "walk/swim"session short and do it multiple times in a given session to instill in them that: They are safe, they can get back to shore, you can be trusted.


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## jp (Nov 24, 2009)

It depends on Penny's mood. Now that she's older she is willing to play fetch more. We have used tennis balls, frisbees and right now are using the Chuckit squirrel Gunnr mentioned. But even at 2 years she often will get the object and then run away and chew it up right in front of us. Especially tennis balls and plastic frisbees.

What do you play soccer with? I loved playing soccer with her when she was about a year, but we can't find a ball that she won't pop or chew up.


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## Vespasia (Apr 19, 2010)

We just play with a regular soccer ball. Hally rarely puts it in her mouth....she likes to run around and dribble it with her paws. We have lost two balls so far...her other dog friends did pop them


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## Crazy Kian (Aug 10, 2009)

Kian will chase a ball or his Chuck-It Flying Squirrel put it in his mouth, look back at you and do one of two things. Run toward you and either drop it about 20' away from you or zoom right past you with it in his mouth :
Now, in the water he was good at retrieving balls or his flying squirrel but lately he will swim out to the object and either touch it with his nose and leave it there or put it in his mouth, swim back towards you and let it it go far enough away that I would have to swim out to get it 
In the last 2 weeks we have lost 4 balls and one flying squirrel :-[
So, for now when doing water fetching we are using sticks.
We need to correct this some how and teach him to bring the ball or whatever back.


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## minnere (Jul 8, 2010)

I have a thirteen week old puppy that loves to fetch for as long as his attention span allows. That is how we get his energy out in the morning. We had a hard time getting him to do it at first but here are a couple things that worked for us:
1.) you have to act like it is the most exciting thing since sliced bread. We clap our hands and just about throw a party when he does it. ( sometimes he doesn't come directly back to us but we help guide him and he gets back in it)
2.) find his favorite toy to play with. We rarely use a ball. On our deck he loves to fetch one of those tire voters that we just roll along the deck. He also likes to fetch tug toys so he can play a little tug at the same time.

That is what has worked for us. Best of luck.


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## 471 (Feb 22, 2010)

Gunr - where do you get "quail" scent? That sounds like a great idea to stimulate Hannah's interest in fetching. She is so scent oriented .


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## nbd13 (Jan 20, 2010)

bearpaw- I use this website:

http://www.gundogsupply.com/training---breaking-scents.html

Best prices around on the internet, also very fast shipper. 

Just ordered the quail scent, the 4 oz. bottle is plenty big. I also got the Dokken's Dead Fowl Trainer the quail model:

http://www.gundogsupply.com/dokdeadfowtr.html

My dog loves it. I injected the quail scent and he went crazy. You need a syringe and needle to inject the scent. They sell it on gundogsupply, but if you can get it at a pharmacy it will be cheaper. Just a small syringe and needle. 

Hope that helps.

Nick


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

Bearpaw

Cabelas, LL Bean. Just about any online hunting dog supplier.

here is a link to the product from Cabelas;

http://www.cabelas.com/link-12/product/0006273220568a.shtml


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## 471 (Feb 22, 2010)

I just found some quail scent on Amazon.com and ordered it, along with one of those flying squirrels. I can't wait - thanks for all your suggestions! :-*


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## 00tjwrangler (Aug 6, 2010)

Lillee loves to play fetch and retreive. Swimming on the other hand she is hit or miss she will go if she wants or if I'm in the water she will come to see wat I'm doing but to fetch a ball or dummy. If there's another dog in the picture I got a better chance to get her in the water


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## Shannon89 (Apr 7, 2010)

Bauer wouldn't play fetch until about 16 months. He would always go after the ball but never bring it back. One day I was kicking a soccer ball around in the backyard and he went crazy! Now everyday all he wants to do is play fetch with the soccer ball. He carries it around in his mouth and brings it back to me everytime.... tennis balls not so much.


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