When they can’t hunt, the instincts shift to an obsession with carrying around a shoe or teddy bear – and hoping I’ll throw it to retrieve. Schooner does this constantly! In the middle of the night I’ll sometimes hear him whine a little for me to wake up and throw the teddy bear for him.

The retrieve is what he lives for. No treats or atta’boys are nearly so good a reward in training as just a chance to make another fetch. He’s just a born work-a-holic!

Schooners’s normal behavior: Highly attentive and waiting for something to fetch.