How To Train A Dog To Fetch The Newspaper

This tutorial is part of The Ultimate List Of Dog Trick Ideas which contains 99 other tricks like this!

A great and most useful trick, your dog could easily learn that bringing you the newspaper is one of his daily tasks.

The first thing to do is encourage your dog to be happy carrying the newspaper, you can do this by passing it to him then taking it back straightaway and giving him a treat. It may help by rolling the paper up and securing it with an elastic bend to begin with.
Now when your dog is holding the newspaper happily, extend the time period by withholding the swap action.
Introduce the command word and gradually bring it forward whilst teaching the dog to pick the newspaper from the floor and pass it to you.
Now gradually increase distance between you and the newspaper by placing it on the floor in one room then leading your dog away from it before releasing him and asking your dog to fetch the newspaper.

Top tip; when the dog is happy with fetching the newspaper simply remove the elastic band, at this point he will be confident enough to pick it up without.

Dog trainers love this trick because it is a great way to teach a positive response to the mailman.

Jean Cote

Jean Cote is an animal lover and the founder of Success Dogs. For more than a decade, he has served as a coach to thousands of dog owners around the world to better train, communicate and forge a stronger bond with their dog using positive and force-free training methods.

Antoinette says:

How do I get my husky to even get it in her mouth to begin with? She refuses, even though she knows she has a treat waiting. I’ve been giving her commands to get the paper, just like she keep she gets her toys or her ball, but she doesn’t respond.I’ve tried to put it in her mother and she’s not having it.

Jean Cote says:

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You’re going to have to begin by rewarding very small behaviors, like biting and lifting it up the ground. You probably should start with a smaller object (doesn’t have to be a newspaper), you might be interested in this training lesson as it’s very similar: http://www.successdogs.com/dog-training-lessons/how-to-teach-a-dog-to-play-chess/

Gary says:

My dog Brandy 2 is very smart, a female golden retriever, 6 yrs old, but I haven’t been able to even hold the newspaper for a second as she won’t even hold it after I put it in her mouth with me saying no drop, but only tried 5, 6 times,and yes,I get frustrated as she won’t hold it for a second. My Mom is almost 91 yrs old and sure wish I could get her to bring the paper to her from the driveway.