Teach your kitten fetch

[Jacob Steel]

How do I teach my kittens to fetch? Right now I just tie the toy with yarn so I can pull it back haha, which they have fun attacking on the way back. But how do I teach them to actually bring the toy back?

They pick it up in their mouth, depending on the toy, but then I bring out a treat and they usually drop it before running over haha.

 

[SavannahLuv]

Honestly, I never taught Shango to play fetch. He just decided one day to start fetching, but he will only bring back certain toys. His favorite "fetch" toys are his dragon (https://www.chewy.com/kong-shakers-dragon-dog-toy-largex/dp/105543), stuffing-less dog toys (his elephant & duck) and his Hyendry Tippy the Rat. He won't actually fetch balls or any of the other toys I bought him that were meant for playing fetch

I think he 1st starting playing fetch about 2 weeks after I got him. I had gotten him an elephant dog toy from Pet Smart that didn't have any stuffing and for whatever reason I tossed it across the room. He ran & got it and brought it back so I threw it again and the game continued. Sometimes he doesn't want to fetch and I'll "chase" him and he'll run off with the toy and stop until I try to grab it from him again. I guess he invented his own version of keep away

 

[SV Dad]

You seem to have this backwards. If they want to play with you, they will bring it back to you. I haven't trained my cats to play fetch. They trained me.

 

[Rafiki]

Yes, on the third day, Rafiki taught us to play fetch.

You might try clicker training.

 

[Patti]

Agree with the others, I never trained my cats to play fetch, they are the ones who decided they wanted to play that game...

 

[WitchyWoman]

This is another "be careful what you wish for" situation. Atticus is a fetcher, can do it for hours. He usually waits until I'm in bed and brings me things to throw. This one of my favorites -- a gallon milk jug ready for the recycle bin. LOL

 

[karenlynn79]

Yeah I'll have to agree with Witchy - Zyon randomly starting playing fetch after he accidentally did and we made a big deal out of it. Now, about a year later, he: 1) only will play fetch with a rubber snake 2); will only bring it back if we throw it in a certain direction from the kitchen; 3) knows where we keep it in the kitchen and tries to open the drawer from the counter; 4) will rarely do anything that is not playing fetch - no matter how much $$ I spend buying him toys and 5) no matter how much we throw snake, he constantly begs for us to throw it... It is very cute and fun, mostly, the four of us take turns. The prob with the snake though is he chews them up and eats it, then pukes. So we have to watch him each second with it and put it away immediately - which we do and my kids are super careful about this thankfully....

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Like everyone else, the cats I've had that fetched discovered it by accident... for example, one dropped a mousie on my head in the middle of the night and I threw it away from me and a fetching monster was born. I don't think all cats want to fetch either, like not all love water and not all wish to go for walks on a leash...

 

[Jacob Steel]

I have one kitten who loves walks and one who doesn't, is there any way to take the 1 for a walk without making the other sad?

 

[Patti]

If your cat doesn't enjoy walks I doubt he will be sad to be left behind when you walk the other one...