# Does your poodle fetch?



## Kendall (Dec 30, 2014)

Jasper has recently taken up a love of fetch. He is really attached to his tennis ball now. We are working on "drop it" though. He thinks it's more fun when I have to fish it out of his mouth. Lol! What other games do your poodles like? 

I attached a picture of him with his ball but also one where he's just so pooped from the holidays. Too cute!


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## Naira (Jan 9, 2015)

Yes. She actually taught me how to play fetch when she was 12 weeks old by bringing a ball to me. When we have company over, she will bring them every toy she has and drop it at their feet or in their lap. Without thinking, they will throw it and she will bring it back to them. She tricks everyone into playing fetch with her!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Yes, all of my poodles have been feat fetchers, although Taylee and now Timi were my only catchers.
I would say though that Timi prefers tug over fetch - which is good do that I can distract her with tug so that Teaka can get the ball sometimes. Timi is crazy fast and agile, and she can swoop in and swipe the ball when it is only inches away from Teaka..,


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## Kendall (Dec 30, 2014)

Funny you mention tug. That is something that Jasper doesn't do. It's like he's too delicate or something. We will start but he just gives up and lets me have it immediately. It's kind of funny because I'm trying to play that with them but he just won't. 





Tiny Poodles said:


> Yes, all of my poodles have been feat fetchers, although Taylee and now Timi were my only catchers.
> I would say though that Timi prefers tug over fetch - which is good do that I can distract her with tug so that Teaka can get the ball sometimes. Timi is crazy fast and agile, and she can swoop in and swipe the ball when it is only inches away from Teaka..,


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Kendall said:


> Funny you mention tug. That is something that Jasper doesn't do. It's like he's too delicate or something. We will start but he just gives up and lets me have it immediately. It's kind of funny because I'm trying to play that with them but he just won't.



I think that is probably good - I bet he is a real people pleaser who is easy to train? I mean,I have no problem training Timi, but she is a feisty opinionated girl who I don't think would be easy to work with in inexperienced hands.


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## Bizzeemamanj (Apr 14, 2014)

Cooper likes to play mom throws it, I catch it and then mom runs around and chases me trying to get the ball back. This game works best with a minimum of three tennis balls. LOL! He loves tug, though. It's hands down his favorite way to be rough and tumble.


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## snmim (Sep 7, 2015)

I had to teach Mira how to play fetch and now she likes it but is not necessarily obsessed. She will bring me a ball or raccoon every now and then.

My poodle also likes an empty loo roll and she will give it to me, I'll give it back, then she'll run and give it to the next person and bring it back to me and goes back and forth... LOL she invented this game herself.

Mira also easily lets go of a tug toy to give it to me but I made her bite stronger by letting her win a lot and then I'd act poorly defeated..


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Poppy tried bringing things back, but found that if you let humans take treasures they just throw them away, so now she puts stuff carefully away in safe places. Toys and balls get carried back indoors to the sofa; sticks she finds outside are hidden in long grass or under a hedge.


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

Yes, both my Tpoo and my cat...


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## mom2Zoe (Jun 17, 2014)

Zoe can play fetch until your arm falls off.She loves !!!!!
She also loves tug .


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## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

Misha lives for fetch. Her favorite toy is her tiny tennis balls. She will drop it on my foot and if I don't respond she will keep poking me with her nose in the foot until I notice.


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

Bella used to fetch, but after Cayenne came, she just keeps playing with it


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

Both my dogs love to play Frisbee. Jazz brings it back every time. Blue brings it back unless he can get Jazz to chase and try to take it away from him. In the house, Blue will bring a ball back over and over, but not outside. Jazz isn't interested in balls anywhere.


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## Raven's Mom (Mar 18, 2014)

Raven lives for fetching a ball anywhere and anytime. She prefers a tennis ball but it can be anything you can throw. Even at the dog park she would prefer to play fetch with me than run with the other dogs. She also will play with any squeaky toys by herself if I can't play with her. 

I had to teach Raven to play tug because they wanted us to do it in agility class as a stress release. She will do it now but it's not her first choice.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Molly loves to play fetch too, but we also play 'catch'....... our game is that I tell her 'Go' and point to the other end of the room and when she gets there I tell her 'Down' and then I toss her the ball/toy which she 'catches' and then brings back to me! That is our 'formal' way to play fetch/catch, but we also just play the regular way too! The funny thing is she only likes to play fetch or catch indoors! I guess there is just too much P-mail to read outdoors LOL!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

MollyMuiMa said:


> Molly loves to play fetch too, but we also play 'catch'....... our game is that I tell her 'Go' and point to the other end of the room and when she gets there I tell her 'Down' and then I toss her the ball/toy which she 'catches' and then brings back to me! That is our 'formal' way to play fetch/catch, but we also just play the regular way too! The funny thing is she only likes to play fetch or catch indoors! I guess there is just too much P-mail to read outdoors LOL!



Oh Timi is the same way - she won't even look at a ball or a toy at the dog park, which would love her to do when there aren't other dogs there - she will only play with toys at home!


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## spookiesmom (Dec 31, 2011)

Both will run after a ball, drop it there, while I'm here. They expect me to go get it to toss again. We don't play fetch much. Spookie gets waaaay to rough with tug, Kris just won't.


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## AngelAviary (Aug 12, 2014)

Stella does and doesn't! She will chase a ball and pick it up and carry it. But sometimes she brings it back and sometimes not. She really dose not seem to understand the concept of bringing it back so I can throw it again. She will play with the ball by herself though, tossing it and pouncing on it over and over like a cat! She loves tug of war! Her and my Border Collie are constantly playing that! She will tug with people too.


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## Caddy (Nov 23, 2014)

Abbey loves balls, she likes to play fetch but will also play by ball by herself, throwing it up and chasing it. Recently her and DH play catch indoors, when he says "go back" she has the cutest little back shuffle wiggle kind of thing going on.


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## Dee84cali (Dec 16, 2015)

Sire sure loves playing fetch! He was a natural, that's what I use to burn his energy every morning


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Maizie is a natural like Sire. She got "excellent retriever" marks on her 7 week old Volhard test. She will try to get anyone and everyone to throw the ball for her, and she brings it back to their feet or hands. She even took a ball to my 3 month old niece who was sleeping in her carrier at Christmas. Maizie dropped it at her feet and wagged her tail expectantly LOL

ETA: She only likes to retrieve tennis balls. She really likes ones that squeak and are squishy (like Kong) .


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## nifty (Aug 2, 2013)

Oh goodness, YES! Dulcie is the fetch QUEEN everywhere she goes! She will play it with me for as long as I will continue. Even when she is tired (after a long walk and about an hour or more of hard running/fetching, she will still want to continue. 
When there are other people around, she will go around to all of them and drop her ball at their feet and encourage them to throw it for her. A few people get tired of it quickly (and I just advise them to ignore her and she will pick it up and move on - she doesn't bark at them or jump on them, she just drops it at their feet and sits waiting expectantly) -- but many people LOVE this about her and play with her. Men, especially, get a kick out of her. I think they have the usual "frou frou" expectations of a poodle sometimes and then they are surprised and delighted when she flies across the park after the ball and brings it back to them. Lots of men (and women, too) at the park get such a kick out of her that they begin to try new things - like bouncing the ball hard to see if she will leap to snatch it out of the air (she will ) and they love to see her flying over the low walls around our park. 
I have had people with various retriever breeds express shocked astonishment that my poodle is such an amazing retriever - and a few have made rueful remarks such as "Why won't my (insert retriever breed) do this??"

All in all, it is great fun to play fetch with Dulcie and I have found it invaluable for training her, too. Since she is not very motivated by food or other treats, playing fetch has been the way to go for a lot of obedience work.


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## Sanic (Oct 22, 2015)

Flynn doesn't really enjoy fetch but maybe that will change as he gets older. He does love it when I throw his toys though - he'll go get it, chew on it for a bit, and then wait for me to find another toy to throw.


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## itzmeigh (Apr 28, 2014)

Hazel enjoys fetch but isn't obsessed. She really likes her frisbee but will fetch a ball just the same. 

She doesn't enjoy tug. She will play tug for all of 2 second and then just stops. It might be my fault though. A very very long time ago an uncle accidentally killed his dog playing tug. It was a tiny chihuahua, so not at all the same as a spoo, but the message kind of stuck with me and I think it made me a reluctant tug partner. 

With fetch toys, ball and frisbee, I don't allow tugging. If she wants me to throw it she puts it down. If she runs off with it twice the game is over and I go inside. (And the ball and/or frisbee goes with me.)

We have a chuck-it and it is blissful that you don't even have to touch the slobber ball if you can teach them to drop it!

We also throw toys in the house. But not the same toys we throw outside. Her outside ball and frisbee only come out for outside time.


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## Muggles (Mar 14, 2015)

Rory is fetch crazy. We play every day in the house and on off leash walks and the dog park. He loves making visitors play with him too. He alternates between dropping the toy on the floor or on a lap but if you ignore him he just waits, staring at the toy with his back slightly arched until you cave (and everyone always caves). It is the most ridiculous and irresistible position. He is such a weirdo  He also will only chase the toy he has selected, there's no dissuading him with a fresh one (especially as he mainly likes his soft toys and they get slobbery after a while (and I occasionally accidentally throw them into his water bowl)), he will just ignore and stand frozen in position until the correct one is picked up. 

It took him a long time before he would show any interest in a ball outside the house but now I can even distract him from dogs by throwing one, which is a big win as he used to be very single minded when it came to other dogs. 

Just recently though he's stopped returning the ball at the dog park, which is super annoying. Will have to work with him on that.


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## sophie anne (Feb 17, 2015)

Ari plays fetch with her toys in the house but prefers to just play chase outside. Sophie is obsessed with playing fetch, and in her younger days would have done so 24/7 if we didn't force her to also eat and sleep. She carried her tennis ball with her everywhere and hid them throughout all of her frequently visited spots, so that if one day she didn't bring one from home she'd always have one to go find.

Now Sophie gets very annoyed if Ari picks up any balls when we are at my parents' house. ALL balls are SOPHIE'S balls, and she will not share (and she has never shared with any of the many dogs to come in and out of our lives through the years). As a younger dog, Sophie kept her balls neatly stacked on the porch and watched them with an eagle eye, but now in her old age she is a bit less attentive and frequently loses them in the yard. Still, if she sees Ari with one of the balls she will give the big, loud "DROP THAT" bark.

This has resulted in the development of a very sweet game between Ari and Sophie. As I mentioned in another thread (Getting old), Sophie often can't see the ball because her eyes are weak from age and/or she forgets what she is doing halfway through retrieving the ball so she just stops and stands there to bark at me.

At first Ari found this immensely frustrating and she would nip and harass Sophie. More recently, Ari, who is growing up and maturing to be a nicer friend, has been becoming Sophie's companion and guide in the world.

When I throw the ball, Ari chases it using her superior eyesight and lays down next to the ball so Sophie can find it. Then she lets Sophie pick it up and guides her back to me (definitely exhibiting some herding behavior here... she will nip Sophie's heels to get her moving again if she stops and forgets what she is doing).

I'll have to try to get a video of this interaction sometime, although it is hard in the snow because I only have a very narrow path where I can throw the ball so Sophie never loses it. It is very, very sweet to see Ari turning from Sophie's biggest harasser into her biggest cheerleader.

I'm not sure whether Ari will learn to like playing fetch when Sophie is gone. I think that the game is more about playing with Sophie and chasing the ball than retrieving at this point.

So, both of my poodles play with tennis balls but only one plays fetch.


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## Alipete21 (Jun 3, 2015)

My SPoo Olyve has been fetching since we brought her home. It is her fav game!! We usually get tired of throwing it before she gets worn out. We purchased the Pro Chuck-It and it's a life saver. Best purchase EVER! (Besides my girl!) That girl lives to play fetch!! This is my girl, she is in a modified continental right now but I am thinking REALLY HARD about cutting her into a bikini trim or lamb cut. She's so athletic that it's just a lot of work to upkeep (and I'm a groomer!)


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## Specman (Jun 14, 2012)

Max lives to play fetch. Both outside and in. The only problem indoors is at some point in time he has to play Russian Roulette with our wall unit. He repeatably spins the ball with his paws under the wall unit and waits until it spins back out. He will do this one too many times and then come to me to let me know that it is my job to get the ball out so we can start again!


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