Teaching your dog to fetch is one of the coolest skills to teach your dog, it is fun and it lets you both have a great time while strengthening the connection between you two. To start teaching your dog, you must first establish the command.  Although it can be any short word, “fetch” is commonly used.

Along with the cue word, you”ll have to choose a gesture that also communicates them what you want them to do. The gesture must be easily associated to the command.  Okay, now you need an area to practice the command.  A large open area is the best, since you can practice fetch at different distance.  Another good idea is to use different types of objects to fetch, so they associate the command with the behavior and not so much with a single object.

One of the ways to teach your dog to fetch is using a collar and a leash.  It is very simple, let’’s say you go to the park with your dog, now put him next to you and throw the object followed by the command (cue word and gesture), now you need to immediately walk towards the object with your dog until he picks it up.  When he completes the action, praise him and give him a treat as a reward and reinforcement.

If the dog never grabs the object, give the object to them so they know what to do.

Training a dog is about repetition.  So prepare to have fun and patience, as you”ll need to repeat the training session different times.  Remember to avoid over training your dog and keep him from getting bored.  Once the dog gets bored of too much training he will stop seeing this activity as fun and learning will be more difficult.

Dogs as all animals, need to eliminate.  However they really don”t know what are considered the correct way and place to do so. Much like babies, if a dog needs to eliminate he will do it right where he is at the moment.  They won”t learn b themselves, so it is our duty as dog owners to learn how to potty train a dog, so he learns what is right and what is wrong. (more…)