Am I the only one......? update!!

[fiona2]

haha i throw the ball for Meg she watches where its landed turns round says something to my collie who gos and gts it for her she then picks it up and drops it at my feet and expects a treat

[lynnruby]

Thanks Karen, we got her at 8 weeks old and she had lots of toys from day 1. She has never shown much interest in toys though  She has never liked squeaky toys, not a lot of interest in balls either!  The only things she really likes are plastic bottles filled with rice or pasta and a rag bone which she loves playing "tuggy" with.  She also liked empty cardboard tubes, such as loo & kitchen rolls (but she's not too bothered about them anymore)

As I say, she will chase a ball but won't bring it back!! 

[piph]

Ozzy will also chase anything thrown for him, will bring it back so far and then tease me with it, not letting it go!  On occasions if I pretend disinterest, he will drop it, but usually because he has become bored with it anyway.  As our GR Cassie (now sadly at the bridge) was exactly the same - I also wondered where we had gone wrong!  I read somewhere once that you should start them off inside in a hallway or corridor or somewhere similar, with something on a long string, then, when the puppy has picked it up, pull the object towards you with the string.  When they've got the message and are bringing it back without you having to pull the string, then you an introduce the 'retrieve' word of your choice.  Then you start to teach them to drop the object in exchange for a treat.  All sensible advice, unless your pup is more interested in chewing the string as Ozzy was! 

[Countrygirl]

Our last cocker, Sophie, was brilliant at playing with a ball.  She would bring it back to you again and again until she was exhausted, even better for her was if she couldn't see where it had landed and she had to 'find it', she would search & search until she found it.

Ellie loves balls.  She will bark & bark at you to throw it, fly after it, find it and then lie down next to it barking.  You then go to her to get the ball to throw again and just as you bend down to pick it up she runs off with it, puts it down somewhere else and barks at you.  No way can we get her to bring it back.  It is a shame, you can really tire them out when they bring something back to you.

[Cockertime Blues]

Agree here with Praia.  We have one dog, Alfie, who is ballmeister par excellence.  Total obsessive, never without one in his gob on a walk, never loses it, lives and dies for his ball "play stations" on our walks. Has been known to swipe oranges in strangers' houses as has confused them with a ball. In contrast, Genie is not ball-obsessive.  I have fostered retrieval in her every day but she can take it or leave it.  She will run after her own ball (as opposed to a communal ball with Alfie) but at a disinterested pace, will watch Alfie half kill himself after the ball, and will go retrieve a ball if she's seen that Alfie is having trouble locating it and she's in with a chance.  Then lose it 2 seconds later. Plus she only brings the ball back to you for a treat.  Otherwise, she can't be bothered.  She prefers to conserve her energy for bogging off after more important things, e.g., birds, squirrels etc.    But I still try to interest her in retrieving because it's what a spaniel does.

[lettie10]

If I throw a ball, she will chase it.......but never bring it back. She just looks at me as if to say "well, you threw it, you fetch it"
 

OMG I cold have written this   Jazz and Bailey exactly the same if fact there have been many occasions when I have been in the garden desperately throwing the balls to look round and find I am on my own dogs have got bored and gone indoors

[lynnruby]

If I throw a ball, she will chase it.......but never bring it back. She just looks at me as if to say "well, you threw it, you fetch it"
 

OMG I cold have written this   Jazz and Bailey exactly the same if fact there have been many occasions when I have been in the garden desperately throwing the balls to look round and find I am on my own dogs have got bored and gone indoors

  so I'm not the only one after all.....

[dal55]

Cassie will chase anything thrown.... run after it collect  BUT will not give it back . There is nothing of higher value that we have been able to find to "swap" Strangely she will drop on command but only as running for something else.
She steals other dogs balls and its a devil to get them back. I must owe  people loads... Cass has quite a collection !!!

[Patp]

If we go over our local field in the morning, our routine is something like this:-

Jinley waits while I take the ball out of my pocket.

I throw the ball with one of those launcher things.

Jinley chases the ball with lots of vigour and intention

Jinley gets the ball and lies by the ball

Jinley walks away from the ball

I walk up to the ball at which point Jinley tries to wrestle the ball out of the launcher

I throw the ball

aaaand repeat   

[Cockertime Blues]

They're funny.  Alfie, my ball obsessive, understands ricochet.  He will also hold back a second to view the trajectory of the ball so he knows precisely where it's going to land.  Genie hasn't a scoobie and expects the ball to be thrown in exactly the same direction every time (i.e., to where she's standing).  I have to throw her special easy "Genie balls" so she doesn't get bored/frustrated.

[lynnruby]

Try using a rolled up sock recently removed from your foot, if the pup picks it up after a few retrieves put a ball in the sock. If this works you bit by bit cut the sock down until there is just a thin band of sock around the ball if still OK remove the last bit of sock and the pup should be fetching the ball.

If the pup will not pick up the rolled up sock in the first place I would give up 

I have followed your advice and for the FIRST time......today, Ruby has retrieved a ball  and she has had great fun!!  It's like a switch has been turned on somewhere in her brain.  She has "fetched" and "dropped" waiting for it to be thrown again!!!  Thanks Jeff 

[piph]

Try using a rolled up sock recently removed from your foot, if the pup picks it up after a few retrieves put a ball in the sock. If this works you bit by bit cut the sock down until there is just a thin band of sock around the ball if still OK remove the last bit of sock and the pup should be fetching the ball.

If the pup will not pick up the rolled up sock in the first place I would give up 

I have followed your advice and for the FIRST time......today, Ruby has retrieved a ball  and she has had great fun!!  It's like a switch has been turned on somewhere in her brain.  She has "fetched" and "dropped" waiting for it to be thrown again!!!  Thanks Jeff 

How did you get her to drop the sock/ball after she had 'fetched' it, ready for you to throw again?

[lynnruby]

Don't know really.  She knows "drop it" as a command for other things, so I guess it was just the same thing for her 

[Holly Berry]

Ebony lives to run after her ball, but won't bring it back, so I take 2. She chases after 1, brings it back so far and then, as she has me perfectly trained, when she drops it I throw the other 

[Snoo]

Ebony lives to run after her ball, but won't bring it back, so I take 2. She chases after 1, brings it back so far and then, as she has me perfectly trained, when she drops it I throw the other 

Clover is like this! She would kill for her tennis ball to be thrown, but she won't let me have it when she brings it back. So we take two balls, and if she knows there is a second ball she will drop the first ball. Sometimes not quite close enough for me to reach so I tell her 'A bit closer' or 'Can't reach it' and she picks it up and drops it a bit closer. I make her bring it right to me before I will throw the ball so eventually she does an annoyed sound and throws it by my feet! On a slope she gets up quitre a momentum and if the ball rolls past me I make her go and get it and fetch it back to me. Great exercise for her, and I don't have to go far at all!