I'm really proud of the fact that my dog Shadow caught on to fetch so fast. He has been fetching since he was a tiny pup, which I understand is normal for labs. (The whole hunting/retrieving thing they were bred for) His sister, Wings, never learned how to play though. I accidently taught her to play fetch the wrong way. They have never been seperated before, so I trained them together. I would throw the toy for Shadow to fetch, and Wings would trot along next to him. Shadow would bring the toy back, so Shadow would get praised. Wings didn't understand what was going on. She would just keep running out to where the toy was, watch Shadow pick it up, and come back to me empty mouthed.

After awhile, Wings finally realized why Shadow was getting praised and why she wasn't getting praised. She would sit down next to me, wait til I threw the toy, watch Shadow grab it, then run him down and tackle him. She would grab on to the toy, tug it away from him, and bring it back to me. When she can't get the toy away from him, she just keeps tugging as he runs back to me. I bought a long rope toy to play fetch with so both of them can bring it back together.

I've tried to teach her fetch the "correct" way, but this way seems like it is a lot more fun for the three of us. Instead of taking turns bringing the toy back, or bringing seperate toys back, they work together, kind of. Shadow has a good twenty pounds on Wings, so I'm not worried about Wings hurting Shadow when she tackles him. They just get awfully dirty playing fetch this way, and then they get me dirty. Infact, it is pretty safe to say that I get totally dirty when playing games with the two of them. :doh:

hahaha... yep, that's how Skip plays fetch too. Starbucks is much to fast and always gets to the toys first, but Skip has a stronger grip and can almost always pull it out of Star's mouth. It's funny watching Starbucks try and run back to me with the toy because he has to run in circles like a football player avoiding a tackle.