Teaching your dog to retrieve is a bit tricky but a great trick to teach your dog. All dogs are energetic and love to run around, given that I am sure that your pet would love to play this game with you anytime of the day. But getting him to understand the rules of the game and learning to play ball with you will take some time, patience and effort on your part. Just remember to use positive reinforcement during your training process and you should be able to play ‘fetch' with your dog in a short amount of time. Here are a few pointers from the secrets of a professional dog trainer that should get you started. You can start to teach your dog to play fetch in very easy steps; the hard part lies in the ‘being patient' bit.

1. Start with chewies - Before you start training your dog to play fetch, make sure that the room contains no distractions, as dogs tend to get easily distracted. Now, try training your dog to play fetch by throwing out his favorite chew toy within your reach and see what happens. Given that dogs are naturally curious, he will follow the toy and start to chew on it. Grab the toy and if your dog does not want to let go, dangle a ‘doggy treat' in front of his nose and he will let go right away. Remember to say ‘good dog' or ‘thanks' when he does that. Repeat the same step again and again, in due course; he will make the connection between retrieving the toy and the doggy treat.

2. Repetition makes perfect - Remember to use positive reinforcement every time your dog performs correctly, by petting him and feeding him treats. Now try word associations, like ‘fetch' every time you throw out the toy and feed him a treat when he does it correctly. Chances are high that your dog will get distracted the first few times you try out this game but that's the norm. Just remember to reinforce the training every time by petting him and feeding him treats.

3. Change the location - It is a good idea to try out this game in different areas of your house to start with. Once he starts to retrieve the toy on hearing the word ‘fetch', you are set to try out this game in an outside location. Dog parks come with any number of distractions for your dog, from trees to other dog's butt. So the first few times he will be distracted. But in due course, he will learn to ‘fetch' the ball or toy on command and will deliver it to you without any stopovers in-between. Do not reward your dog when he does not perform correctly as this would only lead to a case of the ‘wires getting crossed'. After a certain amount of time, you can start phasing out the treats altogether.

You will find that your dog loves to ‘fetch' the ball at your command; the best part is that your dog gets a healthy bout of exercise while playing this game. Using these easy steps from the secrets of a professional dog trainer, you should be able to play ‘fetch' with your dog in a short amount of time. Happy fetching!

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