Adding distance and a start set up to fetch

Once our dogs are able to pick up and place an item in our hand we want to start to add distance between our hand and the object we want them to deliver so we will start giving it a little toss for them to go and get.

Once they are able to go and find the object with a little distance we will work on adding in a little start routine so we can set them up to see the object when we are making it move further away. And also adding in the fetch cue. You can see in the video at the end when I add the fetch cue (I use “bring”) he stops for a moment as the cue distracts him, I just wait and let him go back to the object rather than saying it more or moving, I just let him remember what we were doing.

A few things to keep in mind when you build behaviors like this. One is it’s a dance, you need to know what you want next so if your pup is moving fast you can keep moving with them. If you repeat the step too many times once they get it, that can impede their ability to move forward again when you want more since they think they already have the whole thing figured out. So if they do the step you are at consistently half a dozen times move on. If they get confused you can always step back to an earlier step.

If your puppy really has the concept, don’t keep rewarding lower steps as that can confuse them, so once he really gets the idea is put it in my hand I’m not going to keep rewarding dropping it near me even if I add on the movement to the object, as that might confuse him thinking he doesn’t have to put it in my hand if I’ve tossed it. But I will make that as easy as possible for him by making my hand easy to find and even moving it towards him as he comes in. If he stops offering the drop in my hand I would go back to placing the object down, so we don’t slide the already established criteria as we add steps, we just go back a step if we need to so we can get that criteria back again.