Time with your dog - learning to retrieve

Training tip: Teaching the dog to retrieve

At home in the living room and in the garden you want variety with fun and games? Today we have the right dog training for you and your furry nose!

Retrieving is the perfect activity for in between. On the one hand, your four-legged friend has the opportunity to satisfy his needs (running - carrying prey - following) and on the other hand, the training and the common joy of playing strengthen the bond between you.

As an efficient and motivating method we recommend the dummy training in 5 steps.

That's what you need:

• 2 trainer dummies, one of which is a feeding dummy and one throwing dummy / apportel

• Treats / Food

• 1 command to request (e.g. the word "Bring!")

• 1 food bag

Our Tip: For the dummies we recommend that you remove the throwing straps for retrieving practice, as they move permanently like real prey when worn. Dogs with a strong hunting instinct could otherwise feel compelled to constantly shake their heads when carrying the prey due to the permanently "alive" dangling ribbons / ropes on the toy.

1. Motivate

First of all you arouse the interest and attention of your favourite for both dummies. Praise your dog for every activity he does with the object - pick it up, put it in his mouth, put it down. It is important that you are genuinely and recognisably happy about this activity and that you show again and again how exciting the object is. You demonstratively fill the food dummy with treats.

2. Exercise with the feeding dummy

Move next to your dog, playing with the dummy. When you have the full attention of your quadruped, drop the dummy next to you and continue straight ahead. The most important rule in this step is not to throw the dummy yet, because the dog should move with you instead of away from you. As soon as your pet has picked up the food dummy from the floor, you praise him effusively and give the chosen command, e.g. "Bring!" If your dog comes towards you, you increase your joy until he is very close to you. In order not to provoke a prey fight, open the food dummy immediately and let your furry nose eat the treats inside.

3. Practice with the throwing dummy

In this step you follow all the rules from the exercise with the feeding dummy. Since you can no longer reward your darling by opening the feeding dummy, a food bag is a good idea.

Our tip: To avoid a prey fight in this game, use a "barter": The dog hands you the dummy and receives his reward from the bag.

4. Distancing

With this task it becomes already somewhat more fastidious for your quadruped. Give him the command "Sit!" and move the dummy about 5 m away from your dog. Now place the toy on the floor in front of you, go back to your pet and only then give the command to retrieve. Here you will reward your dog with the exchange of "dummy for treats" too. You can gradually increase your distance to retrieve the dummy, up to approx. 10 metres.

5. Throwing

The last step for this exciting and fun leisure activity is throwing the dummy. Here you give the command "Sit!" to your favourite, then throw the dummy a good 5 m and ask your dog to retrieve. If your dog is standing in front of you with the dummy in his mouth, praise him extensively and exchange the object for a treat from your food bag. When routine comes into play, you can throw the toy as far as you like.

Our tip: In the long term, you can do without the "barter" with the treat. The shared joy and fun of playing with your darling are then reward enough.