Current Social Media Posts About Fetch Games
There’s a post about the downfalls of fetch games with dogs, and it’s circulating on social media right now with lots of views. It talks about sophisticated topics like dopamine and other neuroscience effects of dogs repeatedly chasing and retrieving balls. It includes scientific references. The overview of the post is that these effects are negative and that handlers of working dogs should not be playing “fetch” with their dogs.
I was glad to see another post provide a critical review of this anti-fetch post, providing plenty of references for the opposing ideas put forth.
Fetch for Working Dogs vs. Pet Dogs
In defense of the anti-fetch post, its focus is true working dogs. The author was addressing dogs in training for search and rescue, military or police operative jobs, and other intense tasks that require certification of their skills – really important stuff. These dogs are of breeds like Belgian Malinois and others selectively bred for this work. The dogs being negatively affected by fetch games are not dogs living in your home, but those whose behavior is being carefully shaped to perform specific tasks on cue with over 95% accuracy. People depend on these dogs to save lives, so their performance at a very high level of accuracy is crucial. Repeated fetch games, in short, most likely get in the way of their learning other skills that they need to perfect.
Fetch and The Matching Law
Putting skill sets into a dog’s repertoire, in short, can get in the way of their learning other skill sets. While the brain is effectively limitless in what and how much it can learn, the behaviors that have been reinforced frequently float to the top of the repertoire and are repeated much more often. Remember the Matching Law: behaviors occur at frequencies matching the level of reinforcement that has been associated with them.
A very brief and over-simplified way to put this, to allow a quick illustration in your mind, is that previously reinforced behaviors take up “room” in the repertoire that could be filled with the behaviors one wants to train. They have to be “pushed out of the way” so you can reinforce the new behaviors to a higher level without continuing to reinforce the old “in the way” behaviors. Talk to me in the comments below if you have ideas or questions about this!
Working Dogs and Ball Drive
Steve White is a police dog trainer who I greatly admire because of his committed, inquisitive and creative approach to training. He’s a pioneer in the use of positive reinforcement to train police dogs. His comment that made my ears perk up was about the intense work that breeders of police dog candidates do to amplify the drive for a ball.
Ball play has been used for so many decades to reinforce behaviors and build drive in police dog training, that it is used for “testing” candidates for suitability. The “need” for police dog candidates to have ball drive has been so deeply ingrained in our society that shelter workers get excited when they see a dog really get into ball play, hoping that dog can become a police dog. There are so many dogs in shelters that staff and volunteers are desperate to find homes for them, so they try to think out of the box. The truth is that other techniques of positive reinforcement can also be used and ball drive is not the be-all, end-all quality people sometimes profess it to be. Training is just not that cut and dried.
However, breeders know how traditional police dog trainers test candidates and the selection criteria that are likely to get a dog chosen, so they start conditioning puppies to the ball early on. As a result, purchasers may not be getting dogs with the qualities they actually need, but dogs that have been trained to have a high affinity for ball play. In effect, these pups have been “trained to the test,” perhaps without the actual propensities they need to have.
Compulsive Behavior and Ball Play
Balls become compulsions for some dogs, the dopamine cycle that results taking the place of the other learning that needs to happen. Your pet dog, if he is of a breed with tendencies toward compulsion, is also subject to this particular problem. English Springer Spaniels, my own breed, come to mind.
Fetch Fits In With a Variety of Activities
The pro-fetch post states a lot of reasons that the anti-fetch post is wrong. I agree that playing fetch with your pet dog (or cat!) can be fun and does not have to be detrimental. However, this is where at least a cursory knowledge of dog behavior and training is needed.
Dogs’ lives should include variety as well as routine. Pet dogs are particularly susceptible to being caught up in their humans’ busy lifestyles. This sometimes results in their needs for mental and physical stimulation in the form of play, training, and exercise, being only cursorily met. I know! My dogs suffer from neglect in these areas sometimes. They always eat, drink, and rest well, but sometimes my busy life gets in the way of enrichment, exploration, and new experiences. I have to work at ensuring their routine includes variety.
Any concern for pets regarding playing “fetch” can be addressed by increasing the variety of activities they can choose to participate in. “Fetch” is fine. I love to play retrieving games with dogs. I love to train dogs to retrieve things I drop. It’s all enriching if you train it clearly and with positive reinforcement. However, “fetch” should NOT be the only thing you do with your dog.
Leash walks are also fine, as long as you and your dog are walking as partners with a loose leash. But like “fetch,” leash walks should NOT be the only activity you share with your dog.
Training games, puzzles and searching games, and simple play sessions between yourself and your dog are easy to set up. Think interaction and problem-solving and keep it simple to provide tons of value for your pet! A few short but different activities beat the same walk or fetch session every day.
Stress is the Real Problem with Fetch
One important dog behavior component to learn about is what a relaxed, confident game looks like as opposed to frantic, anxious, perhaps compulsive fetching. If you’ve seen this, you know. The same cautious observation applies to your dog’s play with other dogs, which can also be either frantic and stressed or relaxed and confident.
Stressed dogs may move jerkily. With high stress levels, they are unable to use proper doggie communication skills. They end up exhibiting stiff play that can be threatening to other dogs, making a mess of an attempted play session.
It’s best to start a play session between dogs OR between a dog and a human with both participants relaxed and comfortable with the situation. Chasing and wrestling, just like fetch and tug games, can be carried out with wiggly, smoothly bending bodies OR with jerky, frantic movements. If the body is moving smoothly, so is the brain!
Help a stressed dog learn to play as a way to shake off some of that stress, while preventing him from expressing the stress through his jerky, frantic play.
Pay Attention to What Your Dog is Really Doing
“Fetch” can be a fine game to play with your dog, but pay close attention to see what is really going on. Does the dog look happy to interact with you, ready to learn a new game that requires a specific routine? Does he want to grab the ball or toy and take it away to his bed and be alone with it? Is he not interested in chasing a ball or toy? Would he rather lie down and chew it?
What behaviors can you reinforce? Maybe sniffing the item, walking a few steps over to it, holding it in his mouth, or dropping it from his mouth. Observe what he does and respond by reinforcing a behavior and performing your next move accordingly. This is how you establish your starting point for a fetch game, a tug game, or any other behavior you want your dog to learn.
Watch Out for Stress and Compulsion
Be especially cognizant of a dog’s over-arousal involving a ball. Any kind of compulsive-looking behavior is a cause for concern and a cue for you to make a plan to address it.
Perhaps a dog constantly has a ball in his mouth. Not always concerning, but it is if the dog’s eyes are big and wide open and he pants audibly while carrying the ball.
If a dog repeatedly brings the ball to you, perhaps pushing it toward you over and over, it’s likely how he has learned to get someone to throw the ball. It can also be an indication that this behavior has become compulsive. In this case, you may need some help. Decrease the amount of time the dog has to do this repetitive behavior while increasing the variety of other activities you can get him interested in.
Some Breeds are More Problematic
As stated before, some breeds (Springer Spaniels, German Shepherds, and Bull Terriers come to mind) are pre-disposed to compulsive behaviors. Any breed or type of dog who is already exhibiting stress is also prone to expressing that stress in new ways, like when a ball or another particular item is introduced.
Resource Guarding Problems
Guarding a ball can certainly be part of a twisted “fetch” game. Resource-guarding behavior can be stress-induced. When it is, reducing stress is necessary and can sometimes completely remedy the resource-guarding behavior.
Fetch is Not Inherently Bad
The gist is that both social media posts, the one cautioning handlers of working dogs to stop playing fetch and the one saying it’s OK for pet dogs to play fetch, have value. I suggest you read both when they come through your feed. Remember that animal behavior follows the laws of behavior science. There are many factors involved in animal training and you can use all of them to create a wonderful life for your dog.
Be the first to read our monthly educational and inspirational blog posts like this one, best enjoyed with a cup of coffee or your favorite relaxing beverage. Subscribers also receive a monthly post with a training application you can try with your own dog, right away. Sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of this page!
