My very first dog was a big, strong, yellow Labrador retriever. I was about twelve years old at the time I brought him home. I was addicted to pheasant hunting and I wanted a dog to help me with that addiction. After a lot of “requesting” (read: “begging”), I had received permission from my parents to get my own hunting dog, and pouring through magazines and the local newspaper, I found what I thought was the perfect litter. That pup was named “Cato.” Both of his parents were field champions, and I spent what at the time was a lot of hard-earned money on that eight-week-old pup. I was determined to make him into the best hunting dog in the world and promptly went to work trying to teach him everything he would need to know. Does some of this sound familiar so far? Big expectations, lots of preparation, and then the push to make it all happen.

I don’t remember all of the details, but I do know I tried EVERYTHING to get that dog to retrieve—all to no avail. I tried throwing balls, dummies, sticks, and anything I could think of, but he had almost zero interest in retrieving. In response, I threw more objects for him, hoping one of those throws would be the magical toss that would trigger his retrieving instinct. The best response I could get was for him to run out, sniff the object, and then ignore it. After an extended period of trying, I gave up and quit. Frustrating no doubt. (For the record, Cato still turned out to be a beloved pet and an adequate hunting dog, he just never retrieved a bird for me).

As a twelve-year-old boy with zero dog training experience and no mentor, I tried what I thought was the best way to get my dog to retrieve—by giving him more and more retrieving opportunities. Since then, I have seen many other owners in the same situation (this was not as unique to me as I might have thought) and it’s almost always preventable. 

The Road to Apathy is Paved with Good Intentions

I had the best intentions for Cato, but unfortunately, good intentions aren’t always enough, and in this case, they were almost working against me. Why is that? Because too much of a good thing can quickly take away the fun and turn something fun into work. When we’re talking about a puppy, work is the last thing we want them to think they’re doing. By nature, work is typically a requirement, not a choice (that’s why most of us hope to retire someday), and when a pup feels it is required to do something, often they will pull back and try to avoid that job. 

There are a lot of parallels to human development here. I like to compare this process to a child and sports, particularly baseball. When a child is first introduced to baseball, they’re typically in t-ball. In t-ball, there are few (or no) practices, games are short, and rules are almost non-existent. As the child progresses in the sport, their love for the game grows, and with it their capacity to learn, work, and take instruction. By the time they’re in high school, if they’re still playing baseball, their love for the game and their mental maturity allows them to put up with a strict coach, put in countless hours practicing, and stay focused for long and frequent games. If the process had been reversed and they started out with high-school baseball expectations at a young age, there’s no doubt very few children would stick with the sport. Dogs are often no different. If we take a puppy and give it countless retrieves and place high expectations on those retrieves (such as a perfect delivery), many dogs get burned out and disenchanted with the retrieve. At that point it becomes exponentially more difficult to get the retrieve desire back.

Are there exceptions to this? Of course! Some kids survive an intense introduction to sports and come out better for it, just like some puppies do well on a steady diet of retrieves. But there’s a lot of risk in taking this approach, and very little in-between ground, either they thrive or they resent the job. I don’t like taking risks like that when it comes to puppies (or my children for that matter), so these days I take a different approach to retrieves with puppies.  

A Different Perspective on Retrieves

The question I try to ask myself every time I give a puppy (or adult dog for that matter) a retrieve is very simple: The question is “why?” Why am I throwing or launching this object for the puppy? And there really are only two acceptable answers to this question in my opinion. Either I’m trying to build retrieve drive OR I’m trying to improve retrieving abilities. In the case of a puppy, it’s almost always the former. I want to build that retrieve drive up so that it’s almost insatiable so that later on when I give more complex retrieves and ask for a better delivery, the pup’s drive is so high that it happily puts up with the additional requirements so long as they get the retrieve. 

Putting Theory into Practice 

It’s one thing to talk about dog training theory, it’s another matter altogether to take a living puppy with all of its idiosyncrasies and apply that theory. As the puppy’s owner YOU are the dog trainer, and it’s up to YOU to make sure you’re giving that puppy every opportunity to develop its retrieve drive so that as it matures you can teach it more advanced skills. As you interact with your puppy, here are some things to keep in mind:

Answer the “why” question - Why are you throwing that particular retrieve for your puppy? For me, if I feel the pup doesn’t have an insatiable retrieve drive, that means I’m going to throw that retrieve in order to increase the pup’s drive. I do that by 1) making the retrieve easy 2) using an object the pup really likes (sock, small paint roller, small tennis ball, etc.) 3) reducing distractions (a hallway is ideal here) and 4) by making the session short.

If the pup does have a high retrieve drive, I’m still going to keep the session very short (why mess with a good thing?), but I may add a little more complexity to the retrieve by going to a new area, throwing the object a little farther, etc. 

Know when to stop - This is trickier than it might first seem. Ideally, you want to stop throwing retrieves when the pup wants the object more than anything else, not when the puppy starts to show disinterest. Usually, I’ll start out by only giving one or two retrieves, then tease the puppy with the object to get them fired up, and then I’ll slip the retrieving object into my pocket. This serves to create even more drive for the next session. A good rule of thumb is to make the session shorter than you think it should be. You can’t run into trouble by making the session too short but there is danger in going even one retrieve too long. Remember that less is more in this instance!

Be cautious about proceeding - Of course your pup is an exception (I’m writing this tongue-in-cheek), but most pups are going to benefit by waiting for quite some time before their retrieving sessions are lengthened. If I bring home an eight-week-old pup, I like the first few months to consist of no more than a few retrieves at a time. When I’m confident they’re addicted to retrieving and that I’m not going to burn them out, I’ll slowly start adding one or two more retrieves to their sessions. Again, it’s better to err on the side of going too slow than too fast. You can always do more later on, but a burned-out dog is a burned-out dog. 

Isolate retrieving sessions - When I have a session with a puppy, I want them feeling focused and full of energy, and ready to work with me. I do this by making sure that immediately prior to a training session they’re spending time in their crate in a cool area, so that when I bring them out they’re not already tired or hot. I find this puts them in a good mindset to work. When the session is over, I typically will put them back into the crate, even for a short period of time. I like to think this keeps them more focused during the training session because they aren’t anticipating screw-off time once the session is over. 

Retrieving isn’t everything - If the only thing you’re working on with your new pup is retrieving, there’s a good chance you’re going to be tempted to do too much too soon. Remember there are other skills that you can be working on completely independent of retrieving. Sit, leash work, place work, etc. can all be done with treats or verbal encouragement. If you break up your retrieving sessions by working on other skills, it will help ensure the pup doesn’t get too many retrieves.

In the example of Cato, I kept offering the retrieve hoping it would create more retrieve drive, but I failed to make the retrieve special for him, and in the end, I wanted him to retrieve more than he wanted to retrieve. Don’t do that with your pup! Go slow, be intentional, and remember that the goal is to use early retrieves to create drive, not to burn them out.