How to Teach Your Dog to Fetch the TV Remote

Dogs are intelligent animals and learn useful tricks surprisingly fast.

Teaching your dog to fetch the TV remote is little different from training him to do any sort of more complex activity. The basic process involves repetition of a desired action, rewarding good performance and failing to reward bad performance. You'll also need to show a lot of patience with your dog and with yourself. The steps you need to take in order to teach your dog how to fetch the TV remote are just a bit different from the process of teaching him to fetch a stick. In this case, you have to teach him how to bring you something that you haven't first thrown for him.

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Difficulty:

 

Moderate

Instructions

1. • 1
     Get your hands on a TV remote that you don't mind damaging, but which looks similar to your real remote. This remote is for practice, and it will probably get badly damaged until your dog has learned how to fetch the remote properly.
   • 2
     Start by teaching your dog the basic trick of fetching and retrieving an object you throw for him. In this case it's going to be the remote. Take your dog into the largest open space in your home, throw the remote and goad him into bringing it back to you. Every time you throw, say a keyword that you ingrain in his memory, something like "remote" for example. Every time he successfully does this, give him a treat of some kind. If he refuses to release the remote from his mouth, or won't fetch, then no treat until he does.
   • 3
     Get your dog to abandon any bad habits while learning to fetch the tossed remote. For example, dogs that are playing fetch think it is all a big game, and they'll do things that you don't want them to, like not handing over the object they fetch. If he won't give you back the remote, ignore him and turn away, refusing to play any more or give him a treat until he drops it from his mouth. Eventually he will, and when he does, reinforce the action by showing affection and handing him a snack. Do this until he learns to give up the remote automatically. Apply the same process to things like running away with the remote or chewing on it.
   • 4
     Make sure that your dog has learned how to fetch a tossed remote for you, and that he's familiar with what you're asking of him. Remember, dogs learn mainly by familiarization with repetitive action and positive reinforcement of desired tasks. Once the dog has learned to fetch the tossed remote, recognizes it by sight and also knows that he's supposed to give it to you as soon as he's fetched it, you've got to teach him how to fetch it without first having to toss it.
   • 5
     Take the remote and place it in random places around the room that aren't close to where you normally sit. Then, guide your dog to the remote and, with treat in hand, tell him the keyword you used when training him to fetch in order to get him to grab the object and give it to you. Repeat this several times until you're sure he's got the gist of it, each time giving him a treat to reinforce the actions. Once your dog has learned what you want from him, you can probably sit anywhere you like and simply by saying the keyword, get him to go seek out the remote control and bring it to you.

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