Fetching...

[Richard Crowe]

Holly is an extremely intelligent dog and trains very easily. However, she takes no interest in fetching. She will not fetch a ball; even when her best buddy (Shadow, our daughter's Labrador who has a fetch fetish) runs after the ball for hours to fetch.

I'd like Holly to fetch since it would give her a lot of structured exercise. Actually, it is not really a big deal that she doesn't fetch because she runs all over our one-acre fenced property. I probably would like her to fetch because it would be fun for me.

[Richard Crowe]

Shadow, our daughter's Labrador, is a fetching machine. She will fetch a ball until either she drops or our arm drops off. We use a plastic ball thrower to play with her - which is easier on our arms and eliminates having to bend and pick up a soggy wet ball.

Holly ill run along with Shadow a couple of times and then realizes that she can intercept Shadow when the Lab returns the ball to us.

Holly will occasionally play fetch with a rubber squeaky shoe. But, she will lose interest after a couple of throws. I have not tried treats but, your idea makes sense. Holly will do "ANYTHING" for treats.

By the way, Shadow, at first, would just bring the ball back and not drop it. We began using two identical tennis balls. We would hold one ball behind our back and when shadow brought the first ball to us, we would throw the second ball.

That caused her to immediately drop the ball in her mouth in order to chase the second, thrown ball.