Almost all puppies will play tug with very little encouragement, but getting them to retrieve can be a bit more of a challenge. While I enjoy tug and I don’t believe it causes behavior problems, it isn’t nearly as good exercise as fetch and with my big dogs I’ve found it rather hard on my shoulders. So teaching a good retrieve is a priority for me.

New puppy owners make a lot of mistakes when trying to teach their dogs to fetch: they chase after the puppies, teaching keep-away; they coax and thus unintentionally praise their puppies whenever the pups loose interest in the game; and they insist on stealing the toy whenever the puppy brings it to them.

Here’s how I like to teach fetch. I find a narrow space like a hallway or small room and set myself up sitting on a dog bed in the doorway. I start by teasing the puppy with a toy, and when I’m sure she’s focused on it, I throw it a short distance underhanded. When the puppy picks up the toy, there is nowhere else to go other than back towards me—so now I can praise my pup for retrieving. When she gets to me, I praise her some more and start a game of tug. At this point, I want the game to be 90% tug and 10% fetch, so we tug for a while. When I want the toy back, I stop tugging and gently hold the puppy still either in my arms or by her collar until she chooses to drop it, then I immediately bring the toy back to life and throw it again. With a baby puppy, I only throw the toy four or five times, and then we stop before she can loose interest.

If the puppy isn’t interested in chasing the toy but likes to tug, I can start the game by tugging the puppy into the narrow space, letting go of the toy, and backing up. Once again, the puppy has no where to go other than to bring it back to me and I get to tell her what a great job she is doing.

So set your puppy up for success! If you start to teach fetch in a small narrow space, she’ll never learn to run off with the toy. Ally is just starting to graduate to playing fetch in a long hallway, but I’m guessing is will be another month or two before we try playing fetch in an open room or outdoors. For now, we play lots of tug outside, but I only work on fetch when I’m sure she will be successful.