How to train your dog to fetch? Learn how to train your dog to fetch with these tips. When you have an active dog, such as a Siberian husky, you need to keep his mind sharp and focused. Training is mandatory (I hope you got him potty trained) and you have to make it pleasant and fun, both for you and your dog. Fetching is a wonderful bonding trick. Your dog is listening to your commands and focus on you, while he exercises. Fetching it’s a perfect exercise when you don’t want to move too much. Still, you need to keep your dog spirit up!
Naturally fetchers
Some dogs play fetch naturally. Huskies want to participate in any activity, so if you’re playing with a ball, he will want to play too. He might bring the ball back just to play with you more. But they might not want to drop it to make you chase him. Siberian huskies are pretty sneaky when they are puppies and they will do anything to catch your attention.
- Teach your dog to fetch in your yard first
- Grab your dog attention or have the dog to sit
- Show your dog a toy and then toss it a short distance. It’s ok if he doesn’t follow it. Do it again or throw another toy. If it’s a new toy, you should let him sniff it first.
- When he follows the toy praise him. Praise your dog by seeing “yes” in a high pitch voice. Your body language should transmit excitement too.
- Praise your dog when he picks the ball up and starts to return to you. Call him if he doesn’t start to return by himself.
He might just put his mouth on it, or grab it and drop it right away and return to you without the ball. Just go and get the ball and start again. He will get it.
Huskies, especially puppy huskies want to challenge you. A lot! Your husky can grab the ball and not return to you. He wants to get chased, as it happens when two dogs are playing.
Don’t start chasing him when you want to teach your dog to fetch. Your dog will bring the toy back or drop it somewhere else. If he drops the toy somewhere else, just capture his attention with another toy and throw that one. If your dog wants to play fetch with just one toy at first, then get that toy and throw it.
Following and final steps to fetch
Have some doggy treats on you when you are training him. This will make your dog return with the toy.
- Your husky is returning glorious with his toy in his mouth. What then? When he reaches you, position your hand under his mouth to catch the toy.
- Make your dog drop the ball. It’s pretty simple if your dog doesn’t want to be chased. Say “Give” while you are letting him sniff the treat from your hand. He will drop the ball into your hand and forget all about chasing.
- When he gives you the ball then reward this action with a treat and good high pitch praise. “Such a good boy!” and then put a delicious treat very close to her nose with your right hand.
After the first fetch success, throw the ball again and again. Repetition is the key to learning. With time, your dog will learn the “Give” cue.
When your dog fetches like a pro, you can stop using treats all the time. You still need to praise him for doing such a good job. His reward will be to go to the toy again. Basically, your dog reward is to play with you. And he will enjoy it.
See also: Feeding fruits to your dog – husky
When you teach your dog a new trick it’s better to remove any distractions. Huskies puppy can get distracted by a lot of things. Other toys, people, different noises, frogs and other critters will distract him. After he mastered the “art of fetching” without distraction, place distraction or just don’t remove any from that location. You need to keep his focus and to be more interesting than a frog 😊 or any distracting factor.
Little steps towards fetching
If your dog doesn’t want to fetch with this chain of actions, then you could fragment it. Little steps.
- First, teach him to play with a toy by himself. Praise him for doing that and reward him with treats.
- Teach your dog to “Give” when he has the ball in his mouth.
- Throw the ball and praise him when he starts to chase it.
- After all of this, you can start to play fetch by following the whole chain of actions.
Conclusion
Training your dog to fetch is fun. It’s a good bonding experience between you and your dog. When your Siberian husky learn to fetch, he will enjoy it. Fetching it’s great for you too. You don’t need to exercise that much while he is working a lot. And boy, husky needs a lot of exercises to burn that energy. Siberian huskies are active and working dogs, and they need to work in order to have a happy life. An active husky puppy is a happy husky puppy.
I hope you got a good idea about how to train a husky puppy to play fetch and why not, try it with your puppy! I’m sure he’ll love it!
Did you see my article about why are Huskies such persistent diggers and why they love to dig? Read it here.
