Training a Dog to Want to Play Fetch

In this Linwood Nebraska dog training session we worked with Monte a six-year-old English Springer Spaniel to help him learn how to play.

Monte is a rescue dog who didn’t learn how to play or didn’t have the opportunity to play as a young dog and as a result doesn’t know how to play and engage with his owner with dog toys. Play or fetch is a great way for dogs to get exercise, so I wanted to help Monte learn how to engage in play behavior. First, I needed to make a positive association between the ball or toy and getting a yummy treat reward, then I moved on to teaching him to touch the ball on command. To see how I accomplished this you can watch the video below.

Monte came a long way during this training session! When we first began he was fearful of the ball and would back up and move away from the toy. But as we practiced and gave him plenty of breaks to learn and engage, he gained confidence at each new training session. It was wonderful to see a shy dog start to gain confidence and engage in the ball more and more as we moved along- very proud of this sweet boy!

By the end of the session Monte was learning to move towards the ball on his own and was making the positive association between touching the ball and receiving a yummy treat. To keep up with this good behavior I want to remind the guardian to train consistently for short periods of time. We wrapped up this dog behavior session with Monte’s Roadmap to Success video, which you can watch below.