Training a Service Dog Retrieve

By Jamie Robinson

There is a difference between a competition retrieve and what I service dog does to help his partner in life. Retrieving objects in competition has more to do with scent. But retrieving objects for a disabled handler has to do with naming objects or creating a series of steps to retrieve anything on the floor or in a specified place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jamie Robinson
• Release date: Dec 6, 2022

Jamie Robinson

Jamie Robinson is the owner/operator of Seize the Leash. She is an eclectic dog trainer who uses the best training and/or behavior techniques and practices to assist you in teaching your dog. It is her belief that a dog should learn in a positive fashion as this yields the best outcomes resulting in a well-trained, good mannered and obedient dog. Jamie is a dedicated dog trainer who continually improves her training techniques so that Seize the Leash clients receive the most updated training methods. "I have been training dogs since the early 1970's. I learned first from my Dad, from books, by talking to other trainers, by apprenticing under other trainers, and by attending dog shows and seminars. Asking questions of other trainers was the one of the best ways I found for learning. Asking a question of a dog trainer will usually get you a detailed answer. You may not agree with every method a particular trainer uses, but if you learn one thing from that trainer it was worth it." Jamie has many solutions for helping dog owners stop unwanted behaviors and creating good behaviors. All it takes are some new training tips, owner/handler and pet education, learning dog psychology, understanding how a dog communicates and willingness to work with your dog and practice. Jamie has authored many articles which provide many solutions to eliminate unwanted behaviors, improve good behaviors and teach your dog basic obedience in just 6 weeks (dependent, of course, upon the dog and how severe the behaviors are and the commitment of the owner to do all homework exactly as taught). There is a great deal of satisfaction for both pet and owner when training produces results. Problems with animals can be solved with a minimum of cost and effort, when you take advantage of Jamie's extensive practical experience in hands-on dog behavior training. Janie has remained strongly focused on gaining as much experience in as many dog training facets as possible. There is an art to training dogs that only comes with years of experience, keen understanding and a deep passion for dogs. Confidence Course 10/1/2010 Belle negotiating the confidence course Your dog provides you with love and companionship, but chances are he also provides you with some unpleasant surprises from time to time—a mess on the carpet or a slobbery pair of slippers, for example. While dogs seem to offer their people love and friendship almost immediately, learning how to live by the rules of a human household does not always come so easily. We've helped humans balance their dogs and become the pack leader. We can teach your dog to bark only when necessary, treat other dogs and humans with respect and to enjoy walking with you. "I've always maintained that while it's easiest for me to call myself a "dog trainer" when asked what I do for a living, and while I do think it's necessary to teach a dog basic commands like "sit", "stay", "heel", and "come", what I really do is try to teach people a different way to relate to their dogs. Again, I differ from some of the personalities you see on television, and even many of the current popular authors, who often imply that you can't spoil your dog, and who advocate affection as the least important thing to show your dog. What I do is first help people digest the massive amount of information and misinformation they have been given about their animals, then teach them a consistent way to communicate with their animal in a way that their dog can understand, while also helping them correct their dogs behavior issues so that they can live more peaceful and calm lives together." Solving your dog's behavior problems may take a renewed commitment on your part, but it can be done. And it's worth it. After all, research shows that most dogs and cats are relinquished to animal shelters—or otherwise given up—because of common behavior problems their families didn't know how to solve. Do not quit on your dog, you are all she has. We offer in home programs for dogs of all breeds, ages, and problems. Our training is tailored to each individual dog, with the owner's goals in mind.

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Step One: Motivate Your Dog

The base of the retrieve is to assess your dog’s level of involvement. Not every dog reacts the same to this game. Some dogs are easy to motivate, and they love the game, you can throw anything, and they will race to get it.

But there are other dogs that need more effort to build the necessary motivation (some call it drive) for them to participate fully in the game. If you have a highly motivated dog; you don’t need much to get him going. On the other hand, if your dog is not interested than you need to learn how to get that motivation.

Who’s Your Daddy?

There are so many toys or other objects, and even food, that you can use to play retrieve with your dog. However, we can generally sort them into different groups. Take each of the groups and play Whose Your Daddy game to find out what may motivate your dog most. If it’s cheese balls, then use that in your early retrieve games. Eventually, if you are training a service dog retrieve, all sorts of items will need to be motivating for your dog.

First, we can classify as either food or non-food. Then we can take the non-food items and decide whether they are active or inactive. Third separate by soft or hard and fourthly what type of material they are.

In the active category we have any type of toy that will continue moving after it hits the ground, a ball for example. A ball will continue bouncing/moving on the ground and this will increase your dog’s prey drive.

An inactive example would be something like a branch, which will stay put after it is tossed and may become boring, faster, to your dog.

The second thing to consider is the material. If the item is too soft, it will probably encourage your dog to stop and chew on it, rather than return it to you. But even soft material that encourages chewing can be used in the early stages of retrieve training.

Once you’ve separated everything into its general categories, lay each category out on the floor, each item in that category separated by at least two feet. Let your dog investigate at his leisure and decide which items he loves the most.

Test the Items

One at a time, get each and either play Chase My Hands or The Precious Game. These two games will determine the level of interest your dog actually has in each item. Once you have four or five items, test the chosen food sources in the same manner. Now you have your items to retrieve and the rewards for doing so.

Test the Chase

This is just a test, to make sure that the combination of retrieve item and food reward work together to get a retrieve. You are not going to be throwing an object very far. And you are not going to be expecting the dog to bring the item back to you at this time.

If the object is thrown too far away, your dog may lose interest or may head toward the object but may then get distracted or decide to leave the retrieve game altogether before completing the action.

Once these steps are done, you have a beginning for teaching a simple retrieve.

Step Two: Begin the training

Trade It

We start this game usually when a dog is very young. We play it mostly to get the puppy to understand that the human is in charge of the objects in the environment and that playing with them is under the rules laid down by the humans.

All dogs, no matter the age, like to be in possession of toys and other objects. Resource guarding comes in all flavors. So, one of the first things that needs to be trained is teaching the dog to interact with the object WE want them to interact with.

We usually play this game with tug like objects that the human can keep a hand on and play tug with the puppy. The games is played with 3 or 4 objects and cycled through these objects in a rotation of getting the puppy to release the one they have in order to play with the human with a new one.

Fetch Tug

Fetch-tug is an extension of Trade It. You can start this game in the house, careful to not toss the items you are playing with very far or behind furniture. Again, we generally start teaching this game with a puppy, but I’ve initiated it with dogs up to 13 years old.

The purpose of Fetch-Tug is to get the dog to bring the item back to you. The toss is also followed by playing tug with the human. So, the intention is to throw the item, the dog goes to get it, picks it up and brings it to you to play tug.

Again, you will be using 3 or 4 items in this game. As with Trade It, you will release the item you are tugging with and attempt to get your dog interested in another item. As soon as he drops the item you were playing tug with him with, you throw the new item. And the cycle repeats.

As you throw longer and longer distances, you can move this game outside. If you don’t have a back yard, make sure you have a long leash, at least 50 feet long, to attach to your dog. You can step on the end of the leash to prevent escape. And of course, don’t throw any items more then 50 feet away. In most cases with a service dog retrieve, the item will be within 10 feet.

Troubleshooting

Most of these issues happen with training an adult dog to retrieve. Puppies usually don’t have these issues. Everything goes in the mouth and everything belongs to the puppy!

Holding an item

There are several reasons why a dog would not be willing to keep an object in its mouth.

The first is the need to chew. For puppies, this can be due to teething and sore gums. Chewing helps them relieve the pain and itching. For an adult dog it could be gum problems or tooth decay. Make sure to get this checked out with your vet first to eliminate these issues.

Once it is determined that your dog has no health issues, holding an object because a training issue. A hold is part of the need to survive as a family or group. The food must be brought back to the puppies at the end of the hunt. Not all the canids in the pack will do this. But it can be taught.

If your dog is willing to play tug, that is a form of hold. Work with this by slowly introducing pauses in the play where you are both holding the tug toy but staying still otherwise. When you get your dog to understand the pause, add a cue to this step. Adding cues helps the dog understand what is needed when you change the game. The cue lets the dog know that you are changing but he should not.

When you can cue your dog to pause and he does it and holds the pause for at least 5 seconds, then you can start taking your hands off the tug. Make sure you cue the pause just before you remove your hands. Quickly grab the tug again and play. Slowly build duration for the pause with no human hands until you get to 5 seconds of the dog holding the tug and not moving.

Carrying an Item

Micah has always needed to have something in his mouth. Until Chesovy, no other dog in my care has had this need. I don’t know if Chesovy watched Micah and decided to do the same, but now he too needs to have something in his mouth. https://youtu.be/EYc5hADANcI

This is mostly done when they are going from inside to outside, but both also would rather carry their leashes instead of letting me hold the other end.

But, like I mentioned, there have been no other dogs that did this spontaneously. I have taught it however, to most of them. Usually carrying their leash is the first step.

Most dogs, especially puppies, will haul off and run with something they want that they are sure you are going to take away from them. Watch for this activity, set it up so that your dog will do this. It’s a natural hold and carry and can be expanded on. Use a hot dog that you casually drop on the ground. Watch them run away with it in their mouths!

Then the training challenge is to get them to bring it to you. But training the carry isn’t hard if you use the bacon that your dog selected in the Who’s Your Daddy game. You might have to put food in a cage of some sort so that your dog doesn’t just swallow it whole!

What about a dog who doesn’t want to play?

When working with adult dogs, especially if they are rescues or have little to no training in the young life, play can be an issue. A dog who is being a dog, will play. However, they may not know how to play with a human. Or, they are too fearful or too reactive to be able to spare the necessary focus on play. For one of these dogs, play can’t happen because the dog is constantly on guard in case something turns dangerous. Teaching anything at this point can be tough.

For those dogs who can play, but don’t know how to play with a human, there are several games you can play with your dog to instill a play drive in him. This play drive is basically how to play with a human.

Trade It, Chase My Hands, I’m Dangerous, Precious, Fetch-Tug, Tug, Flirt Pole, Playing With Bacon; all these are games you can play to teach a dog how to play with a human that are geared to an eventual retrieve.

Unfortunately, there are still some dogs that will never learn to retrieve. Its just not in their nature.

Create a Collection of Items

For training a service dog retrieve, it is important you have access to a variety of objects of different sizes, shapes, textures and materials. These objects should be of the type that you will eventually be asking your dog to retrieve and bring to you. Make sure that if you are training with anything that is potentially dangerous, that you either don’t train it and don’t expect your dog to retrieve it, or you take the danger out of it.

A pen is such an item. The ink is dangerous. Take out the ink and just use the outer pen.

Another item is your pill bottle. At first, in the retrieve training, your dog may bite down on the bottle too hard and break it releasing all the pills. Start out with an empty pill bottle.

Different materials in your collection should include:

Wood

half to one inch doweling (varies depending on size of dog's mouth), rectangle, round stick, wooden spoon, wicker basket handle, broom handle, dumbbell

Plastic

spoon, cup, hard toy, ball, DVD case, plates, yogurt or margarine container lid, 12-inch piece of hula hoop, 12 inch piece of garden hose, dumbbell

Cardboard

toilet paper tube, small box, larger box, rolled newspaper tube

Leather

old wallet, purse, belt, work glove

Cloth

old sock, soft toy, face cloth or hand towel

Metal

spoon, mason jar rings, keys, empty pop can, large coins, small coins, BBQ scraper, small empty can (sharp edges taped), dumbbell, tweezers, nail cliper, skewer, rounded butter knife

Glass (advanced skill)

mugs, bowl, marbles, beads (work with the larger items on a soft surface such as carpet, mat or dog bed to prevent loud sounds at first when dropped.)

Test your dog with all these objects with the Who’d Your Daddy game and start with the ones that your dog is interested in. Usually metal is difficult for a dog. It vibrates on the teeth. I solve this by using an iced-tea spoon as a favorite toy. There are usually 2 or 3 of them in the yard that become a treasured toy between the dogs.

Shaping

Marker training has been one of the most effective of any method