How to teach your dog to fetch

One of the things I like to teach early in training is the fetch. I don't see this as formal training but as a fun game to play during the day. The fetch has immense value in training, however. Dogs will naturally chase any attractive object or small creature, and even large ones. But bringing a captured prize back to us involves an act of willing service. This is an attitude we want in the dog.

Here is how to teach the fetch to a young puppy
• Crumple up a sheet of paper to use as a ball. I sit down with a pad of paper so that I can crumple up a fresh sheet into a ball whenever I need one.

• Put the puppy on the light line and get down on the floor with it. I like to sit about three feet away from a wall in the kitchen. Sometimes I will put my legs out and press my feet against the wall, creating a triangle space between my legs where I position the puppy.

• Tuck the line under you, leaving just enough slack for the puppy to chase the paper ball. You don't need much slack, perhaps three feet or so, because you want to keep the dog in the triangular space formed by your legs.

• Wiggle the paper ball in front of the pup to excite its interest, and then throw the ball against the wall so that it bounces back toward your lap. Crumpled up paper makes a good ball for beginning to teach the fetch indoors for three reasons: It won't damage anything, it is light and easy to retrieve, and it will not snag in a puppy's needlelike teeth. Throwing the paper ball against the wall and having it bounce around animates it and makes it a more attractive object to chase.

• When the pup catches the ball, entice it back to you by cooing and by clapping your legs with your hands.

• If the pup does not return, use the light line to make it do so by tugging sneakily on the line from under your leg. Tug with little pops that are just forceful enough to encourage the pup to come to you.

• When the pup returns, praise it heartily and pet it.

• Hook a finger under the pup's flat collar, and with the other hand, begin to wiggle the ball in its mouth to encourage it to release it. Say "aus" or "out" while you do this to teach the dog the signal for releasing an object from its mouth.

• If the pup pulls and refuses to release its "prey," do not tug on the paper ball. Let the hand wiggling the ball move with the pup's mouth, and instead hold the pup in place with the finger on the other hand that is hooked under the collar. Never exert pressure on the pup's mouth. The pup will eventually make a chewing motion with its mouth, and you can pop the ball out. If the paper gets soggy, simply crumple a fresh sheet into a new ball.

• As soon as the pup releases the ball, say "free" and throw and the ball against the wall again immediately as a reward for the release. The intimacy of this game, with the puppy chasing and bringing the ball into your lap, where it can snuggle and be petted, and immediately getting a fresh chase soon as it releases the ball will build immediate, eager compliance later on, whenever you need the dog to let go of something in its mouth.

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Excerpted from Let the dog decide by Dave Stavroff. Copyright 2007 by Dave Stavroff. Excerpted by permission of Harper Collins Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.