The Fetch Game

A fairly common phenomenon with retrievers is that their motivation level is higher going out on a retrieve versus coming back.  My feeling is that the reason many dogs go out well is because of the chase.  Retrievers just love the chase.

Accordingly, one way to strengthen the return, which worked quite well with my dogs, is to play what I call the Fetch Game, in which the chase occurs during the delivery rather than during the run out to the bird.

The Fetch Game works like this:

• Put the dog in a sit.
• Put an article to be retrieved (bumper or bird) right in front of the dog.
• Walk a short distance away.
• Call the dog, first with the cue "Fetch", and then, if the dog doesn't know what that means yet, immediately afterwards with "Here".
• Assuming the dog picks up the article and starts toward you, go racing away, making yourself as much like prey as you can.  You might shout "Yipes!", you might zigzag, you might run behind a tree or other hiding place, you might fall to the ground, you might do all of those.
• When the dog catches you, don't take the article (see Postponing Delivery-to-hand), though if you're using bumpers, a game of tug would be OK if the dog happens to like tug.  The main reinforcer for the return was the chase.  When the dog is back with you, have her sit, if necessary use another article so that she doesn't need to give up the one she had, and play the game again.
• Fade "Here" when the dog begins responding to "Fetch".
• Proofing of this game involves putting the article further and further out of the dog's way, in a clock face around the dog, until eventually the dog will turn all the way around, grab the article behind her, and then come racing after you.
• I'm not sure the game has much benefit at longer distances.  The goal is to develop a strong reinforcement history for the "Fetch" cue, and I think that works best at shorter distances.
• Note: Don't race away until the dog has picked up the article and started toward you, since that wouldn't be reinforcing the behavior of picking up the article and coming, it would just be luring the dog.

You can also use this game with a real retrieve.  That is, once the dog has gone out to a thrown article, picked it up, and started toward you, race away as described above.  I've also found that to be effective for strengthening the return.

However, playing the Fetch Game, where the article is not thrown, makes the chase all about coming toward you, so it may be a more effective way of strengthening that behavior than limiting your reinforcement for the return to situations when you're also strengthening the chase out to the bird.

The payoff for training with the Fetch Game comes at some training day or competition, when you see your dog standing over a bird and, after giving her a few moments, decide a prompt is in order and call out "Fetch", in the same intonation you've used for the Fetch Game.  In an instant, the dog perks up her ears, grabs the bumper, and charges toward you with all the enthusiasm of the chase you've conditioned into her for this moment.