teaching fetch

[KittyBeans72]

anyone got any ideas for how to do this? my pooch will chase, chew and wander around with the ball but not brig it back. he did it beautifully off his own bat for a while, and we rewarded him and praised him and made a fuss of him, but then he stopped.

I've tried having two balls; using a tug ball instead of a tennis ball; hiding a treat inside the ball so he has to bring it back to me to get it (he just got it out)....

anything else I can do?

so playing tugggy or softening mouths does make a diffference then?!?!?! such conflicting views on here stated as fact.

hard mouths are trained for hard grip by using tug...

What's wrong with a dog having a strong grip unless it's a gundog working on game?? Or that it's really really important to you that your dog can retrieve an egg? 🙄

Soft mouths are really only important if you want your dog to retrieve game.

Whilst your dog could have the retrieve instinct from his lab heritage, he could equally be more into guarding and herding from his gsd heritage. Retrieve just may not float his boat. He may prefer hide and seek games instead. Not all dogs like fetching balls.

My sillybrowndog does though. He will do nothing but point at me if I have a tennis ball. Even food is ignored! He has trained me well to do what he likes best; stand in a field and endlessly chuck a tennis ball for him. Not all dogs doing this are unhappy.

Calmit, If the eyeroll was aimed at me, i work my dog on game so that's why it's important she has a soft mouth
And having heard one too many people spouting lockjaw/hard mouth/dangerous dog/can't trust a rescue with an unknown background rubbish, I taught her to retrieve a raw egg to show she could have just as soft a mouth as a lab
I'm not saying it is remotely important for anyone else to do, but it can be done and was quite fun for me and the dog

weasel my terrier is the same ,absolutely ball obsessed and when we are out that's all he wants to do is chase after balls , if I don't throw / kick them he just keeps jumping up or running round me in circles , when we walk with other people he drops the ball at their feet as well so that everybody gets a turn !

Floral, there are a couple of collies who walk in the same parks as me and all they do on a walk is stalk their owners, staring with their pale eyes, desperate for them to chuck the balls. Tennis balls are like crack to them.

Spare change no it wasn't aimed at you!

The thread just seemed to go off on a tangent, with warnings that playing tug can harden mouths, when unless you are working game it doesn't matter a jot. OP makes no mention of working game so it seemed a bit irrelevant.

i believe there's no reason for any family ddog to have a hard mouth, for many reasons, nothing to do with game, but certainly for retrievers yes.

or your sarcarstic comments aimed at me perhaps? if so, further discussion is pointless.

I run agility dogs and also work gun dogs both play tug. The command is different for tug and retrieving game so the gun dogs act differently for the two behaviours. They will hold onto the tug until asked to release and will also retrieve correctly. It is just a matter of pretty straight forward training.

Shriek,
I think you are getting your terminology a bit mixed up.
A soft mouth just means to won't bruise or damage game when they retrieve it
I am struggling to think of a single example of when a pet would need this at home.

I think what you are suggesting is that a pet shouldn't snatch or snap at things, which is absolutely correct. And easily trained.

My gun dog will carry game with the softest grip, and take a treat ever so gently. But throw a tennis ball at her and she will catch it with quite a hard bite.
Her and the terrier will happily play tug with each other and a rope toy and drag each other around a tiled floor

Does that make her a hard or soft mouthed dog?

I agree, Sparechange. Dogs are quite good at differentiating this sort of thing if it's taught properly.

Eg - throw a ball for my dog and say "Get it!" and she'll lollop after it, pounce on it, run back, all the while biting on it enough to make it squeak hysterically, possibly run past me, play keep away, tease me with it.....

Throw the same ball and say "Hold" and she'll go straight out, pick it up, turn, bring it back without any mouthing at all and present it competition style.