How to Teach Your Dog to Fetch
Fetch looks like one behaviour and is actually four: chase it, pick it up, bring it back, give it up. Almost every fetch problem is one of those four links missing, and you fix the link rather than the whole chain.
The method in one line: reward the chase before you ask for the return, then reward coming back before you ask for the release, then reward the release with another throw. Never chase your dog to get the ball, and never end the game by taking the ball away - both teach exactly the opposite of what you want.
Before you start
- Pick a ball your dog finds interesting. A squeak or an erratic bounce does real work with an uninterested dog - the Orbee-Tuff Squeak is our usual suggestion for this specific job.
- Use a hallway or a small garden. A large open space gives your dog too many other options.
- Two identical balls. This is the single most useful trick in fetch training and the reason is below.
- Short sessions. Three to five minutes, several times a day, and stop while the dog still wants more.
- Get treats ready for a dog that is not intrinsically ball-motivated.
Step by step
Step 1: build value in the ball (day 1-3)
Do not throw anything yet. Move the ball along the ground in front of your dog, let it grab at it, and mark any interest with praise. If your dog mouths it, that is a win - end there. You are teaching that the ball is interesting, which is the foundation and the step most people skip.
Step 2: reward the chase (day 3-7)
Roll the ball a metre or two. When your dog goes to it, praise enthusiastically. Do not ask for it back. If your dog picks it up and walks off, fine - the chase is what you are paying for right now.
Step 3: build the return with two balls
Here is the trick. Roll ball one. When your dog picks it up, immediately produce ball two and make it obviously exciting. Most dogs drop ball one and run back for ball two. Throw ball two, pick up ball one, and repeat. Your dog is now returning to you every single throw, and you never had to take anything from its mouth.
Step 4: add the cue
Once your dog reliably brings the ball toward you, start saying "fetch" as it picks the ball up - not before. You are labelling a behaviour that is already happening, which is much faster than trying to instruct one that is not.
Step 5: teach the release properly
Hold a treat at your dog's nose. It will let go of the ball to take it. Say "give" as it releases, treat, then immediately throw the ball again. The critical part is the throw - your dog learns that releasing the ball makes the game continue, rather than ending it. That single association is what separates a dog that gives up the ball happily from one that plays keep-away for the next decade.
Step 6: increase distance, then add difficulty
Extend to full throws only once all four links are solid. Then make it interesting: throw into long grass so the dog has to use its nose, hide the ball, or ask for a sit before each throw.
The three things that go wrong
"My dog won't chase it"
Usually the ball is not interesting enough, or the dog is not ball-motivated at all. Try a squeaky ball, try a scented ball, try dragging it along the ground rather than throwing it, and try attaching it to a rope so it moves erratically. Some dogs - many terriers, many scent hounds, most bulldogs - are simply not retrievers. Scent games and food puzzles will make them far happier than fetch ever will, and there is nothing wrong with that.
"My dog brings it back but won't give it up"
This is the two-ball problem and the two-ball solution. Almost always it is because the dog has learned that handing over the ball ends the game. Go back to step 5, throw the second ball the instant the first is released, and stop reaching for your dog's mouth. If your dog guards the ball, growls, or stiffens over it, that is resource guarding rather than a training gap - work with a qualified behaviourist rather than escalating it.
"My dog runs off with it"
Never chase. Chasing turns the ball into the most valuable object in the world and turns keep-away into the actual game. Instead: turn your back and walk the other way, which most dogs find intolerable and will follow; or use the two-ball method; or work on a long line in a confined space until the return is reliable.
Keeping fetch healthy
Two things worth building in from the start, because they are much harder to add later.
An off switch. A clear start cue and a clear end cue, and the ball goes out of sight afterwards. A dog that never learns that fetch ends is a dog heading toward the fixation problems we describe in our Border Collie guide.
Impulse control. Ask for a sit or a down before each throw. It slows the adrenaline cycle, makes the game a thinking exercise, and gives you a dog that waits rather than one that snatches.
And on the physical side: throw low and along the ground rather than high. Running is good for dogs; leaping, twisting and landing on two legs repeatedly is how cruciate ligaments go. No launchers and no jumping for dogs under twelve to eighteen months - see our puppy guide.
Frequently asked questions
How do I teach my dog to bring the ball back?
Why won't my dog fetch?
How do I get my dog to drop the ball?
Why does my dog run off with the ball?
At what age can a puppy learn to fetch?
How we test
Every ball on this site is bought at full retail price with our own money. Nothing here is a sample sent by a brand, and no manufacturer sees a review before it is published.
Testing runs over a minimum of six weeks with four dogs chosen for genuinely different jobs:
- A Labrador who fetches hard but chews gently - the volume tester. If a ball survives him it has survived a lot of repetitions.
- A Staffordshire Bull Terrier who destroys most things within a fortnight. He decides every durability verdict on this site; the other three rarely mark a ball at all.
- A whippet who runs flat out and catches in the air. She is the reason we care about how a ball behaves in flight rather than just on the ground - whether it tumbles or flies true, whether it is light enough to catch cleanly at speed without jarring, and whether the surface gives enough grip for a dog to take it out of the air rather than bat it away. A ball that is fine to pick up off the grass can be genuinely unpleasant to catch, and nothing else in the group would have shown us that.
- A twelve-kilo terrier cross used to check whether smaller mouths can carry a ball comfortably, and whether the weight is manageable over a full walk.
We record bounce height from a two-metre drop onto paving, whether the ball floats in still water and how much of it sits above the waterline, throwing distance with a standard launcher, catchability in flight, and the physical state of the ball at two, four and six weeks. Balls that split, delaminate or lose their shape inside six weeks do not make the recommendations regardless of brand.
Where we have not tested something, we say so on the page rather than inventing a verdict. That currently applies to the automatic ball launchers, the light-up ball category, and some of the squeaky and treat-dispensing products - each carries a visible notice.