How to get my dog to return the ball?

[GeoffreyPanek]

How do I train my dog to return the tennis ball?  He will chase it or catch it but either he simply picks it up and drops it  or if he does bring it  back, he plays "catch me if you can".   Frustrating since my golden retriever seemed to naturally pick this up but my 5 year old poodlish doesn't get it.  thanks for any tips.

[Adrienne]

Greetings,

Welcome to the forums!

With dogs who are reluctant to bring the ball back, drop the ball too early or swerve away there may be several dynamics going on. 

1) One possible issue is that your dog is more interested in playing a totally different game than fetch: that is, "the keep-away game. "The keep-away games goes just like that: you toss the ball, your dog grabs it and playfully comes towards you. The moment you move towards him, he'll quickly swerve in hopes of you chasing him. Many dogs love to play keep away games with other dogs and they may often try to involve humans too. However, there are several drawbacks in this game and one of them is that it puts a dent in teaching your dog to play fetch and releasing anything your dog may have snatched and is carrying in his mouth.

2) Another possibility is there *may be* a "touch" of resource guarding. To many dogs, a ball is a resource that they may feel propense to guard. A dog doesn't have to necessarily growl or bare teeth to show signs of resource guarding. There can be a variety of much more subtle signs and one of them is a dog who is reluctant to give up a ball and plays hard to get. If this sounds like a possibility, the problem is more ingrained and the resolution requires a basic foundation of trust that may need to be built overtime. With dogs prone to resource guarding though caution is needed. Possessive dogs may bite if they feel threatened. For safety, if this would be the case, it would be therefore important consulting with a dog behavior consultant such as a board-certified veterinary behaviorist or a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist.

3) Something else that comes to mind is simply a dog who doesn't understand the game. Some dogs simply will drop the ball or won't bring the ball back because they aren't familiar with the rules of playing fetch. Your dogs sounds like he knows very well the first part of the game, that is, chasing a ball and carrying it, but he may have failed to understand the final part. This can take some training. Here's the thing: from our perspective, fetching seems like an easy task. Dogs just have to catch the ball and bring it back. From a dog's perspective, the exercise is instead made of a string of discrete behaviors put together in a chain. It would look like something like this:

Watch the owner toss the ball→run after the ball→open the mouth to grasp the ball→close the mouth to hold it→carry the ball for several steps→bring it to the owner→drop it in front of the owner or into the owner's hands. 

Putting together all these behaviors is not an easy task, unless, your dog is naturally inclined to perform this behavior. It is somewhat a form of advanced, specialized training if we think about it, similar to many service dog tasks such as retrieving a dropped object or getting the keys or phone and bringing it to the owner.

4) Watch for dogs scared of collar grabs. Sometimes we may have inadvertently inculcated in our dogs a reluctance to come close to us because we have grabbed their collars in the past for correcting the dog or dragging him out of trouble or snatching him from getting something or for a timeout. This can all backfire with a dog who is isn't comfortable with us getting close to them.  To prevent this, I encourage dog owners to make collar grabs pleasant. This is discussed here under the troubleshooting section: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/recall/

4) Finally, one needs to consider genetics and individual factors. Not all dogs are naturally predisposed to playing fetch. Golden retrievers were selectively bred for centuries to bring back downed birds to the hunter so they tend to have a natural inclination for fetching. They're called retrievers for a reason! But even here there may be exceptions to the rule. You may have golden retrievers or Labrador retrievers who may show signs of not inheriting good "fetching genes," and then you may have dogs like my female Rottweiler (a breed selectively bred for herding livestock and pulling carts) who as a youngster went crazy over a game of fetch without much training involved. Poodles should enjoy retrieving as well considering that were used for hunting waterfowl, but as with retrievers, we need to factor in individual variance. Of course, if your poodle is mixed with another breed, we're dealing with a mixed bag of genes so we don't know what to expect. 

So now, let's look at some options to get him to complete the chain of behaviors necessary to do a full fetch. Here are some ideas that come to mind:

-Let your retriever do some "modeling." Sometimes other dogs can be the best teachers. This won't necessarily work, but it may be worth a try since poodles are very smart. Have your poodle on leash with a family member or friend  and have him watch your retriever do several trials of fetch.

-Try indoors. Many dogs struggle playing fetch outdoors because there are too many distractions. On top of this, we are adding more distance, which creates challenges too. So it may be worth trying the game at home in a room without many distractions going on, at a closer distance and without any other dog around.

- Try the "two-ball method." This may work well for dogs who will pick up the ball but are reluctant to bring the ball back ad tend to swerve if you try to get it. In this method, you'll need two balls (one in your hand, the other in your pocket). It goes like this: you will toss the ball, the dog will pick it up, you would then attract your dog by showing him another ball and bouncing it around. Your dog at this point, will be likely to approach. Walk backwards a few steps to encourage him to approach. The moment he is close to you, and drops his ball, toss the other ball. Chances are, he'll go grab the other ball you just tossed. Even better, fill up a bucket with balls and keep trading. Repetition after repetition, your dog will understand that in order to chase another ball, he must first bring back the one he already has. Please note: if you choose to try this method, don't fall into the temptation of pretending to toss the ball just for the sake of getting him to drop. This leads to suspicion in the dog and a future reluctance to drop.

-Try back chaining. Back chaining may help a dog who is little reluctant over giving up the ball. Back chaining in dog training means that you'll be teaching the last behavior of the chain first and then move in reverse order moving forward towards the beginning. When you train using back chaining, the last behavior of the chain becomes particularly reinforcing.

A retrieve trained backwards would therefore look like this:

1. First, you would teach the dog to hold the ball in his mouth and drop it. Here's how to train "drop" on cue: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/drop-it/
2. Afterward, you add some distance so your dog would hold the ball in his mouth and have to bring it to you so he can drop it.
3. Next, you would toss the ball, have your dog catch it, bring it towards you and drop it in your hands.

Some other tips/ideas:

-Dogs thrive on learning, but they do far better when we teach them behavior using small steps and making the sessions short and sweet rather than moments. It is more effective and fun to make this a brief exercise at various times rather than long and tedious.

Finally, we need to consider that if our dogs  do not show much interest in playing fetch, we need to try our best not to get frustrated or impatient. Dogs can read our emotions and from a game, it will turn into a chore. On top of this, we need to again think about a dog's individual personalities. Just like wanting a child to take piano lessons, when the child is enamored with art, trying to persuade a dog to like fetch may  get us no where if the heart isn't in to it.

Fortunately, if worse comes to worse, there are many alternate ways we can play with our dogs. You can try with a flirt pole or play nose work games or brain games. You can also take your dog to agility classes. The best part? You won't end up with a dog obsesses about playing with fetch. 

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Adrienne 

Disclaimer:  Possessive dogs may bite if they feel threatened. If your dog is prone to resource guarding please consult with a dog behavior consultant such as a board-certified veterinary behaviorist or a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist.

 

[GeoffreyPanek]

This is terrific information and ideas.  I also like the fact that not all dogs are retrievers.  There are many other games I can play with him.   Unfortunately, my golden retriever has passed away and when he was playing with Charlie (the poodleish) he was too old to fetch and retrieve without the little guy racing him to the ball, so not really able to do the modeling.  And I have seen dogs that are obsessed with chasing the ball and it can become way too much, so I may be lucky he's not that way.

I will try the back training and also playing with the tennis ball in the house, shorter distances.  He does seem to be more receptive to bringing it back indoors.  Have to teach him the drop it.  Anyway, thanks so much for the tips.

[Adrienne]

You are very welcome!

So sorry for your loss. It's so tough seeing them age and then losing them. I am sure though that Charlie brightens your days. 

Keep me posted on how things go. 

I am here if you need further help along the way. 

Best,

Adrienne