To Teach a Dog to Fetch a Phone is best thought of as one of the novelty dog tricks.
For example, how cool would it be for your dog to get the phone for you to make a call or when a call is coming in?
As a rule, I would not use a good phone on this trick. Your dog could easily and unintentionally break it. As always, it’s your dog/phone and your call.
Importantly, we reference a couple of other tricks in this article. For example, the how to teach dog to take it and how to teach a dog to drop it commands are explained in these links.
STEP 1
With the Phone in hand, place it in your dog’s mouth and say, “TAKE IT” – PRAISE and REWARD every success.
In step 1, you are putting your phone [Disclaimer: your old phone…] in your dog’s mouth and associating “TAKE IT” to this action.
When they do grab the phone, give them a hearty verbal praise (Good Girl, Good Boy) and a well earned treat.
Once you get this down, move onto step 2.
STEP 2
Once step 1 is complete, put the Phone in their face and make them smell it and PRAISE and REWARD them. Then, set the Phone a couple feet from you on the ground and say “PHONE”
In this step, you want to associate the verbal command “PHONE” to your phone on the floor and your dog getting it. Keep it up and you will make the connection.
STEP 3
Once they get the Phone, they don’t get the treat REWARD unless they come back to you with it.
Be excited, have a treat in hand and PRAISE and REWARD them when they do. Say “DROP IT” if needed.
The goal of this step is to get your dog to pick up the phone in their mouth from where it is.
Once they do this, you want to entice them with their favorite treat to bring the phone back to you, then “DROP IT” in your hand.
Always praise and reward successes or good progress made by your pup.
FOLLOW ON:
Gradually increase the distance to the Phone and get your dog to fetch it with just the “PHONE” command.
Clearly, How to Teach a Dog to Fetch a Phone is not the easiest trick. But, with an old phone, some persistent effort and a positive attitude, you can get it.
We would be interested in your experience training this trick to your dog. Please drop a comment below and let us know how it went.
