Mercy is a 4 year old pit bull and has three loves in her life.

Me.
Balls.
Smells.

She adores me, and we call her Butt Dog since she's always got to be right next to me, usually behind me, and if I move an inch, she adjusts so that she can remain close. If she could wedge herself up my butt, I'm sure she'd try. I've often joked with people that I'm going to get one of those baby slings for newborns and put her in it so I can carry her around.

She loves balls, and her eyes light up as soon as she sees them. She goes spaztic when chasing them, and it's 50/50 if she actually brings it back to me because...

She's got a super sniffer. Two years ago I took her hiking and she was lost in the woods for 3 months after slipping her chain to chase deer. Obviously she was found again and she was very fat and in great shape, but after that her prey drive and desire to hunt has been through the roof. Any smell of any animal totally distracts her. Any sight of any small prey animal drives her bonkers. I'm attempting to work on her self control, and it's slowly working.

So now I'm having issues with her following through on the retrieve because she gets so easily distracted. She'll go out, grab the ball and have a grand time, and start to come back but something will smell amazing, she'll drop it, and then race back to me without the ball. To be honest, we just do this for fun and exercise. There's just something about playing fetch with my favorite dog that makes my day better than it started out.

So what should I do to encourage her to bring the ball back? Note that this does not happen with squeaky balls, and that's actually how she discovered fetch. She loves to kill squeaky toys and when she had one in her mouth I recalled her and tossed it again so her prey drive would kick in. After that the rest was history, but I've weened her off of them and would rather not deal with that loud obnoxious noise except for training and drive building. Maybe whistler balls?

Have you tried 2 ball?

I would start by shortening the distance you throw the ball.
It will give the dog less opportunity to veer off course if they don't have as far of a travel to get back to you.

I think's there's a thread here somewhere that talks about back-chaining to teach a dog to fetch. Start with the ending then work backwards.

Yes, I always use two balls. Throw one, she spits it out at my feet, I throw the other and repeat.

Work on your recall independent of the retrieve.

Then proof it for this situation, on a long-line.

Throwing the ball and hoping for the best is doing nothing but teaching the dog it doesn't always have to. I'm betting it doesn't even know that's what you want it to do.
Back chaining is your best friend with the retrieve!
After that, as posted above, start out with short distance. The further away you are, the more apt to be distractions and your influence on the dog drops of sharply with distance.

Samantha, do you know back-chaining?

The dog does not yet get how this string of actions is supposed to go.

I no longer teach even the simplest "fetch" without back-chaining it, and I never will; I have Bob to thank for this, from years ago. :-)

I fail to understand how she could not know what I want her to do when she's been doing it for three years and has only been sloppy on it since her life-and-death situation. She always had flawless retrieve before she had to hunt for survival.

I don't know anything about back chaining. I'll do a search.

 Quote: samanthatopper

I fail to understand how she could not know what I want her to do when she's been doing it for three years and has only been sloppy on it since her life-and-death situation. ...

I must have missed this.

But anyway: If the dog does something with no distraction and not with distraction, it's still a training issue. Why the distraction became higher level doesn't matter much. (JMO)

I would probably still back-chain (meaning to break the behavior into pieces, or links, and teaching the last one first).

Obviously, doing this means starting over. I generally do start over when I run into a breakdown (for whatever reason) in a previously-good command/behavior.

Whether starting over or not, though, it sounds like at least going back to proofing for distraction is needed, with gradually-introduced levels of distraction.

"I'm attempting to work on her self control, and it's slowly working."

Maybe this means that you already are going back to gradual proofing for distraction?

Reading again
"Very fat and in great shape"

I suspect this dog had been cared for buy someone else while she was "lost". Doubtful if any dog that spends three months in the woods "hunting for survival" is going to come back "fat and in great shape".



"Start to come back but something will smell amazing, she'll drop it, and then race back to me without the ball".


If she is actually coming back after finding something that "will smell amazing" the she would be following that amazing scent and not coming back to you.
I still believe that someone had her during this time lost. Maybe the played ball with her and created this issue. Maybe she's just lost interest in the retrieve part of it and just want's to chase and play with the ball.

"That's actually how she DISCOVERED how to play fetch".


She was never trained to fetch and she no longer feels the need.

Back chaining!!!

Bob, back chaining is a little confusing to me and something I would love to learn more about. Since fetch seems like an easy enough example, would you mind explaining to me how it would be done?

Or, if there is a thread that you have already explained it, could you link me?

Thanks