Teach your dog to “Get it” and “Bring it”
Narrated from: Dog TrainingYou may wish, if you haven’t already, to take a look at the sequence of commands before trying this one. Some other commands will make this one much easier to master. The “get it” and “bring it” commands are not difficult to teach if you have patience with your dog. They always say “Practice makes perfect”, and it is no exception when you are training your dog. If you have already taught your dog to fetch a ball, you are almost there before you even start! Most often these two commands are taught after the “leave it” command so you may want to read that article first! It might make things easier for the both of you to get that lesson digested first.
Start by tossing a favorite toy on the floor in front of your dog and tell him, “Get it” as he runs for it. Practice this by placing something near him and then giving him the command. If your dog is over excited and jumps on the toy before you have a chance to give the command, you can try holding it up over his head so he can “catch” it as you say the command. The “wait” command should be in place by now so put him in a “wait” stance, put a toy down, change your command slightly to “Okay, get it”, and off he goes! The okay adds the fun part, and “Get it” relates to him being able to fetch the toy. Practice this often and he will catch on very quickly. The more commands your dog learns the more he will want to learn because he knows by now that he has the ability to respond and make you happy.
For the “Bring it” command simply toss a toy, and as he’s bringing it back to you simply put that behavior to the words ”Bring it”. Praise him exuberantly! If you have already taught him to fetch, he already knows the action and all you need to do is help him relate the new words to his current action. If you have not taught him that yet, you are killing two birds with one stone! Every time he brings you something, repeat the phrase “Bring it, good boy.” The more you make him feel he is doing the right thing, the more he will want to keep doing it.
These two commands along with the “leave it” and “drop it” commands grew in popularity when big stories about service dog training first started coming out. Watching dogs do these amazing things to help humans was very heart-warming and intriguing. Many of these are the commands that service animals use every day while they work. Think about other ways you can utilize these commands with your dog. If you drop your cell phone can you tell him to get it and bring it? Maybe you can use the commands to help you and other members of your family! There is no doubt that your dog wants nothing more than to please his humans and once he knows what you want he’ll do it every time!
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