Whether you are interested in a game of fetch where you aren’t chasing the ball or frisbee yourself, developing a reliable retrieve on your hunting dog, obedience dog or service/assistance dog; training your dog to retrieve not only improves your relationship, but enables owners to control troublesome behaviors like resource guarding, stealing and even biting.
The trained retrieve is the fundamental skill on which all other, more complex trained skills are built. Obedience dogs, Police dogs, Hunting dogs and Assistance dogs are all trained to retrieve in order to provide them with the context in which to understand and perform their jobs. Whether it’s retrieving downed game or locating objects dropped in the pursuit and apprehension of criminals, the trained retrieve is the gateway to higher learning for your dog and a finely tuned, cooperative relationship with you, the owner.
Training your dog to retrieve enables you to enjoy far more than a visually appealing parlor trick; it enables you to utilize your dogs retrieve skills in a productive and worthwhile way. All of those Super Bowl beer commercials were the end result of dogs having completed and perfected the trained retrieve; the act of picking up foreign objects on command, holding them in their mouths, and delivering them to a person or location.
The trained retrieve is probably one of the most useful skills a dog can be taught. Think of the things that your dog could actually help you with, beyond fetching the paper! You could teach him to locate and deliver your keys, the television remote, your cell phone or that beer out of the fridge.
If you are ready for the next step in your dogs’ training, contact us! We are only an email away!
