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Do your Dobermans play fetch?

  • Yes

    Votes: 167 60.5%
  • No

    Votes: 49 17.8%
  • Sometimes

    Votes: 76 27.5%
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Do your Dobermans play fetch?

30K views 141 replies 124 participants last post by  MeadowCat 
#1 ·
I am just curious as to how many people have Dobermans who play fetch and enjoy it? Did they naturally retrieve, or did you have to teach them?

Ripley is awesome at playing fetch. He has so much fun, and so do I. I love dogs who will play fetch. He's always had lots of toy drive, but I had to teach him how to retrieve. Now he's a retrieving maniac and will fetch forever if I don't stop him. I love that about him -- it's a good way to exercise him, and it's fun for both of us. And after we're done playing fetch, I play tug with him for a bit as a reward. He doesn't really need a reward for retrieving anymore, but that's how we started, and he still very much enjoys and looks forward to a game of tug at the end.

Keira won't retrieve anything unless she feels like it, which is seldom. She enjoys chasing a ball, but won't bring it back most of the time. Which I find odd, since she enjoys chasing the ball so much, you'd think she'd want to bring it back to be thrown again. But nope. She'd rather just run care free by herself or race another dog.

Winston (my first Doberman) sort of half retrieved. He'd chase his toy, and bring it back half way to wait for me to throw it again. He didn't ever grasp that I'd be more efficient if he brought it all the way back, haha. But he never played fetch for more than about 5 throws before he got distracted and had enough.

So how about your Dobermans?
 
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#2 ·
Cricket never really got the hang of playing with people, I don't know if she was played with much before we got her but she never played tug, or with a ball. Poppy kind of played fetch, she would chase, bring it back to within a metre of you then if you tried to grab the object she would run off with it again. Lottie plays yayyouthrewtheballandnowihaveitandyoucantcatchmezoooooooom. Which pretty much is grab the ball and run circles around me for a few minutes, drop the ball, and as soon as someone looks at her, pick it up and run crazy circles again.
 
#7 ·
my dogs live for fetch. rah has to be physically stopped before he collapses.
 
#8 ·
Myt current one yes. I thought her breeder taught her to fetch and tug before I got her at 10 weeks. I had always assumed that until I asked a few months ago. She loves tug, toys, fetch, frisbee, you name it. Makes training very easy to find something ot reward with :)

My previous 2 kind of fetched occasionally. If I had the skills I have know to foster that drive more, I think they might have been ok at it.

I will say it is much easier to have a natural.
 
#10 ·
Capri will go after a tennis ball and bring it back to within 15 feet or so--she doesn't run off with it when you go to get it--but you do have to put your foot on it to get it away from her. I believe she learned how to fetch from Kip.
Kip is obsessed with tennis balls. He used to drop it between your feet and act reasonably politely, but when Capri is around now he gets super possessive (she is fast with the take-away) and won't let anyone touch it.
His quirk is that he will claim one particular tennis ball as his, and that is the only one he will play with that session. If Capri grabs it, he follows her all over the place--she delights in playing keep-a-way.
The fun thing about Kip's quirk is that I could play all kinds of scent discrimination games (go find your ball in a stack of 15 tennis balls, or pick it out of the 10 balls scattered all over the field) and it looked like I had trained him:) NOT! He just wanted HIS ball back.
 
#11 ·
From Luci: "I do not fetch. I do not do "get it girl". I do not retrieve. If you wanted that toy You should not have thrown it. You want it, you have two good legs, you go get it."

From Me: Luci looks at me like I've suddenly lost my mind if I ever even Dare to throw something and request that she go get it. She will however chase me if I have something she deems to be rightfully hers.
 
#13 ·
I think fetch came came pretty easy to Vader. I don't even know how it started, but I would throw the ball, he would get it, and I would say "Come!". I think I started trying fetch at about 4-5 months when he had his basic commands down. That's about it. Yeah, sometimes, he tries to play keep away with it, but he does love a good game of fetch. My female Boxer will watch me throw the ball, and look up at me like, "You want me to do what?" My male Boxer who passed away from cancer about a year ago would play nonstop, even when he was 9! It's kind of like Doberkim said. If I didn't stop him from playing fetch, I think he would have passed out.
 
#17 ·
If fetch involves "okay throw it throw it throw it"
You threw it... "Okay I'll chase"... "But now I will play keep away... Come get me human"

Then yes he fetches... he just doesn't return it all the time lol
 
#19 ·
My past dobe Daims had no interest in fetch or even balls for that matter, and after he "grew out of" puppy mentality (do they every truly lose that?? lol) he lost interest in his security blanket toy 'squeaky chop' (by 11 months of age he seemed to think that toys were too juvenile hehe).

Zil on the other hand loves his chew toys to bits! Literally! The ropes must be chewed in half and the ball bit shreaded to tiny pieces (and scattered all through the living room) then the knots on the now 2 pieces of rope have to be alternately shaken and chewed until they form a hard hairly ball like structure that can then be tossed in the air by either him or me. The game of toss/fetch itself only lasts about 4 or 5 throws before the knot has to be taken to bed and knawed on for another 10 minutes.

....and it's only ever dropped in my lap when it's suitably dripping with saliva to elicit the "eekseuuuurgh!" from me :lol2:
 
#23 ·
Dakota likes playing fetch, for a short time... She kinda looks at me like "Yea, right... Why am I going to go get my toy, I'm going to do all the work, bring it back like a good lil girl, and you're just going to throw it across the yard. Then I have to go chase it again, and bring it back so you can throw it. No thanks" lol.
 
#24 ·
Well, I have three Dobes and all three are different! Here's the breakdown:

Moe - he will retrieve perhaps two or three times and then he just wants to run off with whatever you've thrown and play with it! :)

D'Va - throw something, anything, and tell her to "take it", she looks at you like "you want me to do what? - oh, I don't do that, sorry!!" :)

Jordan - throw anything, she will retrieve until you take it from her and put it away, don't just throw it down on the floor, cause she'll just pick it up and start all over again. She's a natural retriever and has been since the day I got her at 10 weeks. :)

Jan
 
#29 ·
my first dobe would go racing over tot he thrown object and proudly show me where it was and then wait for me to come over and get it for her (it was her favorite way to exercise me). my girl learned to play fetch by watching a bunch of labs at a play day. they wouldn't play with her but chased a ball. even at 5 months she was faster than they were so she got the ball and tried to get them to chase her. after a while they lost interest. eventually she figured out that bringing the ball back "restarted" the labs and the running game. she doesn't enjoy playing fetch by herself. my boy loves fetch and has ever since we rescued him at 1 1/2 years old
 
#31 ·
Thakoon fetches quite well when he and I are one on one. Not always a perfect retrieve, drop in front of my feet kind of thing; he usually runs back, lays down close, chomps a couple times before out/leave it and he goes again. I did not put much effort into teaching him the game. I'm pretty sure he learned from watching the dog that lived above us. Lab/Border Collie X... could be the ball-craziest mix out there.

If Bella (Doberman) is around, no fetch. Chase me/keep away only. Usually each dog attempts to convince the other that the toy they've picked up first is the "highest value" toy. It's amusing. If I pick up a toy, then that's the high value one. I usually set them up for a tug, and they'll stand-off for as long as 45 minutes. Bella doesn't fetch on her own. She'll chase a toy if she feels like it, but she won't retrieve.

Thakoon seems to enjoy having ME fetch things for HIM. I swear he purposely rolls or bounces his toys over the edge of the porch to the driveway below where he can't get them. He stares at them for a few seconds, then the whining begins. No other toy will suffice... he only wants the one that went over the edge, and he wants me to go get it for him. He did this as a puppy too; he would push, roll or bounce his toys until they were under furniture and then whine at me to get the toy back for him. :rolleyes:
 
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