Hey all,

So I was just having a real good game of fetch going with keeonah. For some reason, she's part retriever and loves it. Always brings it back to me, mostly because she loves chasing it so damn much (<-- Spoiler alert). We have an open floor plan at my house so I can throw it from the family room and it get it most of the way through the kitchen. it's a blast! She LOVES her bouncy orange and blue Chuck-it brand rubber ball. By the way, those things are literally indestructable and keeonah freaking loves it. Keeps her busy forever.

And then I had this thought. What is fetch when you get to the root? You throw a bouncy, small, fast object, and your dog scrambles after it like a possessed demon, pounces on it, shakes it, decides she's satisfied and brings it back.

...Have we really been reinforcing prey drive this whole time?

Short answer: Yes.

Pretty much. Kale never brings it back haha. Either he runs after it, squeaks it a few times, then trots back to me with nothing. Or he seems like he's bringing it back, but runs past me, and drops it 5 feet behind me.

Mine are fetching pros, along with cat hunters and bird catchers... Oi.

Yes, but mine don't play fetch, you throw it, they watch it, then look back at you like, why did you do that?

Tika wont play fetch at all. If there are a group of dogs at the park and an owner throws a ball, they all chase it, Tika chases them. She never goes for the ball. Chasing is her favourite game.

we play catch, or my dogs chase the dog chasing the ball. hardly ever does jack bring the ball back to me and sierra takes off and chews on it......
they also have HIGH pray drives, but you dont see many labs going all crazy killing small things

Bella LOVES fetch, she will bring whatever I throw back to me and set it on my leg or drop it on the floor if I'm not sitting. She will then watch me patiently for about a minute then look back and forth from me to the toy and then try throwing it herself. She gets so excited it's hysterical. After I throw it she'll surf around on it for awhile and then bring it back. Unless we're outside with a ball, then I have to chase her around a bit and one of the times she runs past me she'll drop it and return for the next throw.

Kato gets the idea of playing fetch.....but gets bored of it easily....
He'll play maybe 3 or 4 times, and then decides chasing the grasshopper is much more exciting!!!

BTW..Sean, what is the name of her bouncy orange and blue chuck??
I'm in need of a indestructable play toy for my two....nothing ever lasts more than a day!!

Loki loves fetch. Most the time he will bring a ball over and drop it in my lap or at my feet. Only time this sucks is when we try and eat dinner and he wants to play. He starts wooing and gets pouty because we aren't throwing the ball because we are eating. Little guy is not allowed tennis balls anymore because he eats the fuzz off them and then someone in the house has to help him when it dingleberries.

Sheba LOVES fetch and she really gets into it. She watches me like a hawk as I get ready to throw it, then as soon as I do she runs full speed, jumps like four feet in the air, pounces on the item, spins around tossing her head, then trots back with her head held high . It's so adorable.

Yes. It's probably reinforcing prey drive.

Soshanna and Mixie love fetch. If a stick is long enough, and it's just them, they will fetch the same stick, simultaneously, for me. They just trot back with one end in either mouth..Both are excellent individual fetchers as well.

Soshanna also loves killing things. Not cats, or dogs, but everything else. I encourage that, too.(bad dog trainer, bad bad dog trainer.)

Some of the fetching "games" I play with them are making them sit until the ball has hit the ground and finished moving, and then having them retrieve it, or calling them off the chase mid-pursuit, individually or as a pack. It works into the later lessons of not killing squirrells in front of school aged children, emergency halt commands, which are handy things to teach a ball-fetching, animal-murdering dog like Soshannna.

Does she do the high horse prance? Bella does that with tennis balls sometimes, you'd think she was in a parade or something it's SO funny.